Abstract
Aim: The study aimed to examine the impact of crosslinking BMP2 in biodegradable visible light-cured thiol-acrylate hydrogels. Materials & methods: BMP2 was photoencapsulated in 10 wt% PEG-diacrylate hydrogels with or without immortalized mouse bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC). Results & conclusion: Photoencapsulated-BMSC with BMP2 (BMBMP2) showed a significantly (p < 0.05) increased level in metabolic activity, by 54.61%, compared with photoencapsulated-BMSC at day 3. Furthermore, BMBMP2 groups showed significantly increased levels in ALP activity compared with BMSC at days, 1, 3, 7 (p < 0.01) and 10 (p < 0.05). This study shows promising results photoencapsulating BMP2 in thiol-acrylate hydrogels for craniofacial bone tissue engineering applications.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank CC Lin for generously providing PEGDA hydrogels (Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, IN, USA), M Alvarez for generously providing immortalized mouse stem cells (Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Indiana University, School of Medicine, IN, USA) and M Kacena for generously providing BMP2 (Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Indiana University, School of Medicine).
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors would like to thank the Canadian Bureau of International Education for financial support to the first author during his PhD period (Ottawa, Canada). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.