Engineered cellular microenvironments from functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes integrating Zein/Chitosan @Polyurethane for bone cell regeneration

Abstract A biomimetic-based approaches, especially with artificial scaffolding, have established great potential to provide tissue regeneration capacity and an effective way to bridge the gap between host cell responses and organ demands. However, the synthesis of biomaterial is most efficient when the functional behavior involved most resembles the natural extracellular matrix. Here, a fibrous scaffold was engineered by integrating zein and chitosan (CS) in to polyurethane (PU) associated with functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (fMWCNTs) as a bone cell repair material. The chitosan-based, tissue-engineered scaffold containing 0.1 mg/mL fMWCNTs shows potent synergistic results where improved biomechanical strength, hydrophilicity and antibacterial efficacy produce a scaffold akin to a truly natural extracellular matrix found in the bone cell microenvironments. The scaffold enables rapid cell-to-cell communication through a bio-interface and greatly promotes the regenerative effect of pre-osteoblast (MC3T3-E1) which is reflected in terms of cell growth, proliferation, and differentiation in our in vitro experiments. Alizarin red staining analysis, alkaline phosphatase activity, and Western blotting also confirm the nucleation of hydroxyapatite (HA) nanocrystals and the expression of osteogenic protein markers, all of which indicate the scaffold’s excellent osteoinductive properties. These results suggest that this precisely engineered PU/Zein/CS-fMWCNTs fibrous scaffold possesses suitable biological behavior to act as an artificial bone extracellular matrix that will ensure bone cell regeneration while contributing numerous benefits to the field of artificial bone grafts.