Assessment of the Release Profile of Fibroblast Growth Factor-2-Load Mesoporous Calcium Silicate/Poly-ε-caprolactone 3D Scaffold for Regulate Bone Regeneration

<jats:p>Recent advances in three-dimensional printing technology enable facile and on-demand fabrication of patient-specific bone scaffolds. However, there is still an urgent need for printable biomaterials with osteoinductivity. In the present study, we propose an approach to synthesize fibroblast growth factor-2 loaded-mesoporous calcium silicate nanoparticles. The growth factor loaded-nanoparticles served as fillers of polycaprolactone and then the composite scaffolds with a controlled pore structure were obtained through a fused deposition modeling technique. To evaluate the feasibility of the composite scaffolds in bone tissue engineering, drug release kinetic, bioactivity, cell proliferation, differentiation, and animal study were conducted. Our findings illustrate that utilization of mesoporous calcium silicate allowed the introduction of fibroblast growth factor-2 into the composite scaffolds through a simple soaking process and then gradually released from the scaffold to facilitate proliferation and osteogenesis differentiation of human Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells. Additionally, the in vivo femur defect experiments also indicate that the co-existence of calcium silicate and fibrous growth factor-2 synergistically accelerated new bone formation. These results demonstrate that the fibroblast growth factor-2-loaded mesoporous calcium silicate nanoparticles/polycaprolactone composite scaffolds may serve as potential bone grafts for facilitating repair of defected bone tissues.</jats:p>