A Hierarchical‐Structured Mineralized Nanofiber Scaffold with Osteoimmunomodulatory and Osteoinductive Functions for Enhanced Alveolar Bone Regeneration

Abstract

Abstract Alveolar bone resorption is a major cause of teeth loss and jeopardizes the osseointegration of dental implants, greatly affecting patient's quality of life and health. It is still a great challenge to completely regenerate the alveolar bone defect through traditional guided bone regeneration (GBR) membranes due to their limited bioactivity and regeneration potential. Herein, a new hierarchical‐structured mineralized nanofiber (HMF) scaffold, which is combined with both anisotropic and isotropic nanofibrous surface topography and the mineralized particles, is fabricated via a simple template‐assisted electrospinning technology and in situ mineralization method. This HMF scaffold can not only directly induce osteogenic differentiation of bone mesenchymal stem cells (osteoinduction), but also stimulate macrophage toward pro‐healing (M2) phenotype‐polarization with an elevated secretion of the pro‐healing cytokines, eventually enhancing the osteogenesis (osteoimmunomodulation). The results of in vivo rat alveolar bone defect repair experiments demonstrate that as compared with the combination of commercial Bio‐Gide and Bio‐Oss, the single HMF scaffold shows comparable or even superior bone repair effect, with better tissue‐integration and more suitable degradation time and accompanied by a simplified operation.