Polyphosphate enhanced biomimetic mineralization of 3D printing scaffolds for bone regeneration.

Biomimetic mineralization has been widely applied in the preparation of bone repair materials for achieving better mechanical and biological properties. However, the mineralization effectiveness is not quite satisfactory. Herein, enhanced biomimetic mineralization was realized through polyphosphate modification of gelatin. Molecular dynamics simulations theoretically demonstrated the effectiveness of poly-phosphorylation in augmenting mineralization. Experimental results revealed that poly-phosphorylation could increase the saturation of in-situ mineralization of gelatin from about 25% to more than 40%. Consequently, the compressive strength and elastic modulus of the enhanced mineralized composite were increased by 57.93% and 132.55%, respectively. The osteogenesis was also promoted. Combined with 3D printing, the scaffolds not only had the advantages of enhanced in-situ mineralization but also were endowed with the macro-controllable porous structure to achieve better bone regeneration. It interpreted the mechanism of biomimetic mineralization in terms of the saturation of in-situ mineralization and provided a viable strategy for biomimetic scaffold preparation. Enhanced biomimetic mineralization is achieved through effective in-situ mineralization of polyphosphate modified gelatin. Experiments verify that poly-phosphorylation could increase the saturation of gelatin mineralization from about 25% to more than 40%, by providing more nucleation sites of hydroxyapatite. Combined with 3D printing, the scaffolds are endowed with controllable porous structure, which offers a new avenue to manufacture bone regenerative scaffolds biomimetically. [Display omitted] • Enhanced biomimetic mineralization of organic-inorganic composites was achieved by efficient mineralization of piGel. • It theoretically and experimentally demonstrated the effectiveness of poly-phosphorylation in augmenting mineralization. • The view of saturation of in-situ mineralization was first proposed to interpret the mechanism of enhanced mineralization. • The mechanical and biological properties of enhanced-mineralized nanocomposites were improved greatly. • 3D printing was applied to achieve the construction of the personalized scaffolds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]