Influence of quercetin and nanohydroxyapatite modifications of decellularized goat-lung scaffold for bone regeneration.

In the present study, goat-lung scaffold was fabricated by decellularization of lung tissue and verified for complete cell removal by DNA quantification, DAPI and H&E staining. The scaffold was then modified by crosslinking with quercetin and nanohydroxyapatite (nHAp), and characterized to evaluate the suitability of quercetin-crosslinked nHAp-modified scaffold for regeneration of bone tissue. The crosslinking chemistry between quercetin and decellularized scaffold was established theoretically by AutoDock Vina program (in silico docking study), which predicted multiple intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions between quercetin and decellularized scaffold, and FTIR spectroscopy analysis also proved the same. From MTT assay and SEM studies, it was found that the quercetin-crosslinked nHAp-modified decellularized scaffold encouraged better growth and proliferation of bone-marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) in comparison to unmodified decellularized scaffold, quercetin-crosslinked decellularized scaffold and nHAp-modified decellularized scaffold. Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) assay results showed highest expression of ALP over quercetin-crosslinked nHAp-modified scaffold among all the tested scaffolds (unmodified decellularized scaffold, quercetin-crosslinked decellularized scaffold and nHAp-modified decellularized scaffold) indicating that quercetin and nHAp is very much efficient in stimulating the differentiation of BMMSCs into osteoblast cells. Alizarin red test quantified in vitro mineralization (calcium deposits), and increased expression of alizarin red over quercetin-crosslinked nHAp-modified scaffold indicating better stimulation of osteogenesis in BMMSCs. The above findings suggest that quercetin-crosslinked nHAp-modified decellularized goat-lung scaffold provides biomimetic bone-like microenvironment for BMMSCs to differentiate into osteoblast and could be applied as a potential promising biomaterial for bone regeneration.