Wnt Pathway Activator Delivery By Poly (Lactide-Co-Glycolide)/Silk Fibroin Composite Nanofibers Promotes Dental Pulp Stem Cell Osteogenesis

The high regenerative ability of damaged bone tissue in Oral and maxillofacial area has made it an optimal target for tissue engineering. Introducing scaffold that has high biocompatibility and good degradability and can also deliver biological factors well is the most important goal of tissue engineering. In the present study, poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA)/silk fibmin (SF) nanofibmus scaffolds with and without inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) as a Wnt pathway activator was fabricated via electrospinning. The potential application of fabricated scaffolds in oral and maxillofacial tissue engineering was investigated with the culture of isolated and characterized dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) in vitro. The obtained results demonstrated that the highest viability of the DPSCs was detected when grown on the PLGA/SF/polyP nanofibers compared to the PLGA/SF nanofibers. Furthermore, DPSCs cultured on PLGA/SF/polyP nanofibers exhibited a strong osteogenic differentiation potential compared to when cultured on the PLGA/SF nanofibers or standard culture plate. Therefore, according to the results obtained in this study, the PLGA/SF/polyP nanofibmus scaffold in combination with DPSCs or alone has a great potential to use for bone reconstruction in oral and maxillofacial tissue engineering applications.