Magnesium modification up-regulates the bioactivity of bone morphogenetic protein-2 upon calcium phosphate cement via enhanced BMP receptor recognition and Smad signaling pathway.

Efficient presentation of growth factors is one of the great challenges in tissue engineering. In living systems, bioactive factors exist in soluble as well as in matrix-bound forms, both of which play an integral role in regulating cell behaviors. Herein, effect of magnesium on osteogenic bioactivity of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) was investigated systematically with a series of Mg modified calcium phosphate cements (xMCPCs, x means the content of magnesium phosphate cement wt%) as matrix model. The results indicated that the MCPC, especially 5MCPC, could promote the rhBMP-2-induced in vitro osteogenic differentiation via Smad signaling of C2C12 cells. Further studies demonstrated that all MCPC substrates exhibited similar rhBMP-2 release rate and preserved comparable conformation and biological activity of the released rhBMP-2. Also, the ionic extracts of MCPC made little difference to the bioactivity of rhBMP-2, either in soluble or in matrix-bound forms. However, with the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), we observed a noticeable enhancement of rhBMP-2 mass-uptake on 5MCPC as well as a better recognition of the bound rhBMP-2 to BMPR IA and BMPR II. In vivo results demonstrated a better bone regeneration capacity of 5MCPC/rhBMP-2. From the above, our results demonstrated that it was the Mg anchored on the underlying substrates that tailored the way of rhBMP-2 bound on MCPC, and thus facilitated the recognition of BMPRs to stimulate osteogenic differentiation. The study will guide the development of Mg-doped bioactive bone implants for tissue regeneration.