nano-particles Calcium Sulfate, Growth Factor delivery scaffold for bone regeneration

Objectives: Our lab has developed nano-sized particles of Calcium Sulfate (nCS) to improve the chemical and material properties of medical grade Calcium Sulfate (CS), an osteoconductive bone substitute and to develop a device to consistently deliver growth factors to a critical bone defect for enhancement of bone tissue regeneration. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of the newly developed nano Calcium Sulfate growth factor delivery ceramic scaffold to improve the guided bone regeneration (GBR) in critical defects using in vivo rodent models.

Methods: To evaluate the effects of nCS as a device to transport growth factors to the critical defects for GBR, a rodent animal model was used. The rat calvarial critical defects with 8 mm diameter were created with trephine drills. The defects filled with no graft served as a control group, with 100 mg of nCS and 100 mg of nCS plus 50 ng of Platelet-Derived Growth Factor (PDGF) as experimental groups. The rats were euthanized at 8 and 12 weeks postsurgery for radiological, histological and histometric analysis.

Results: The results from the rat calvarial critical defect model demonstrated that there were no statistically significant differences of new bone formation between groups based on the radiological follow-up, and histometric analysis. However, the quality of healing of the critical defects in terms of the tissue type and space maintenance for the GBR in the nCS plus PDGF group was better than in the control group in histological analysis.

Conclusion: Within the limited results of this study, the nCS is a potential ceramic scaffold to deliver growth factors to enhance bone regeneration in the critical bone defects. Further studies will be considered to develop the modified formation of nCS and to determine the optimal combination of the modified nCS and growth factors for bone tissue engineering.