Growth factors were often used to improve the bioactivity of biomaterials in order to fabricate biofunctionalized bone grafts for bone defect repair. However, supraphysiological concentrations of growth factors for improving bioactivity could lead to serious side effects, such as ectopic bone formation, radiculitis, swelling of soft tissue in the neck, etc. Therefore, safely and effectively applying growth factors in bone repair biomaterials comes to be an urgent problem that needs to be addressed. In this study, an appropriate concentration (50 ng/mL) of Wnt3a was used to pretreat the 3D-bioprinting gelatin methacryloyl(GelMA)/polycaprolactone(PCL) scaffold loaded with bone marrow stromal cell line ST2 for 24 h. This pretreatment promoted the cell proliferation, osteogenic differentiation, and mineralization of ST2 in the scaffold in vitro, and enhanced angiogenesis and osteogenesis after being implanted in critical-sized mouse calvarial defects. On the contrary, the inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in ST2 cells reduced the bone repair effect of this scaffold. These results suggested that ST2/GelMA/PCL scaffolds pretreated with an appropriate concentration of Wnt3a in culture medium could effectively enhance the osteogenic and angiogenic activity of bone repair biomaterials both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, it would avoid the side effects caused by the supraphysiological concentrations of growth factors. This functionalized scaffold with osteogenic and angiogenic activity might be used as an outstanding bone substitute for bone regeneration and repair.
Keywords: 3D-printing; Wnt3a; bone regeneration; scaffold; vascularization.