A comparative study of zwitterionic ligands-mediated mineralization and the potential of mineralized zwitterionic matrices for bone tissue engineering

Cationic and anionic residues of the extracellular matrices (ECM) of bone play synergistic roles in recruiting precursor ions and templating the nucleation, growth and crystalline transformations of calcium apatite in natural biomineralization. We previously reported that zwitterionic sulfobetaine ligands can template extensive 3-dimensional (3-D) hydroxyapatite (HA)-mineralization of photo-crosslinked polymethacrylate hydrogels. Here, we compared the potency of two other major zwitterionic ligands, phosphobetaine and carboxybetaine, with that of the sulfobetaine in mediating 3-D mineralization using a crosslinked polymethacrylate hydrogel platform. We confirmed that all three zwitterionic hydrogels were able to effectively template 3-D mineralization, supporting the general ability of zwitterions to mediate templated mineralization. Among them, however, sulfobetaine and phosphobetaine hydrogels templated denser 3-D mineralization than the carboxybetaine hydrogel, likely due to their higher free water fractions and better maintenance of zwitterionic nature throughout the pH-changes during the in vitro mineralization process. We further demonstrated that the extensively mineralized zwitterionic hydrogels could be exploited for efficient retention (e.g. 99% retention after 24 h incubation in PBS) of osteogenic growth factor recombinant bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) and subsequent sustained local release with retained bioactivity. Combined with the excellent cytocompatibility of all three zwitterionic hydrogels and the significantly improved cell adhesive properties of their mineralized matrices, these materials could find promising applications in bone tissue engineering.