Enhanced osteoblast adhesion on self-assembled nanostructured hydrogel scaffolds

The objective of the current in vitro study was to improve properties of a commonly used hydrogel for implant applications by incorporating novel self-assembled helical rosette nanotubes (HRNs). Since traditional methods (such as autografts and allografts) used to treat bone defects present various disadvantages (such as donor tissue shortage, extensive inflammation, possible disease transmission, and poor new bone growth), which may lead to implant failure, much effort has been devoted to creating a novel bone substitute that biomimics the nanoscale features of natural bone in order to improve bone growth. HRNs (formed by chemically immobilizing two DNA base pairs) are a novel type of soft nanomaterial that biomimics natural nanostructured components of bone (such as collagen) since they are 3.5 nm in diameter and self-assemble into a helical structure in aqueous solutions. Because HRNs undergo a phase transition from a liquid to a viscous gel when heated to slightly above body temperatures or when added directly to serum-supplemented or serum-free media at body temperatures, they may provide an exciting therapy to heal bone fractures in situ. In this study, HRN-K1 (HRNs functionalized with lysine amino acids) was embedded in and coated on a model hydrogel [specifically, poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) or pHEMA]. The results of this study showed, for the first time, enhanced osteoblast (bone-forming cell) adhesion on HRN-K1 embedded in and coated on hydrogels compared to hydrogels without HRN-K1. Moreover, the results showed that embedding HRN-K1 into hydrogels can greatly decrease the polymerization time of pHEMA (especially at low temperatures). The presence of lysine in HRN-K1/hydrogels was shown to be one, but not only, property of HRN-K1 that enhanced osteoblast adhesion. In summary, the present results demonstrated that HRNs can improve properties of one particular hydrogel (pHEMA) and, thus, should be further investigated as a bone-healing material.