Evaluation of apatite-coated chitosan microspheres for bone regeneration

The apatite-coated chitosan microspheres were fabricated by incubating chitosan in five times simulated body fluid. The apatite deposited on the microspheres was similar to natural bone mineral, as demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction spectra and Fourier transformed-infrared spectroscopy analyses. Rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) were seeded on apatite-coated microspheres to investigate the effect of this scaffold on cell proliferation and differentiation. BMSCs seeded on uncoated microspheres were served as a control. In vivo experiment was evaluated by transplanting the microspheres loaded with or without BMSCs in 5-mm cranial defects of Wistar rats. Bone regeneration was investigated via micro-CT and histological analysis. It was found that apatite-coated chitosan microspheres could significantly promote the proliferation and alkaline phosphatase activity of BMSCs compared with uncoated microspheres. Histological slices and Micro-CT images at 8 weeks revealed much better regeneration of bone in the apatite-coated microspheres loaded with BMSCs than the control. In addition, the defect filled with pure microspheres induced little new bone formation. Our findings suggest that the apatite-coated chitosan microspheres scaffold is a promising carrier of stem cells for cranial bone tissue engineering.