The effects of heat and hydrogen peroxide treatment on the osteoinductivity of demineralized cortical bone: a potential method for preparing tendon/ligament repair scaffolds.

Recent studies have indicated that demineralized cortical bone (DCB) may be used to repair tendons and ligaments, such as the patellar tendon and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Hydrogen peroxide (HO) has been shown to reduce the osteoinductivity of DCB, and heat treatment may also decrease the osteoinductivity of DCB. The purpose of this study was (i) to determine whether heat treatment reduces the osteoinductivity of DCB and (ii) to compare the effectiveness of heat treatment and HO treatment on BMP-2 inactivation. DCB was prepared by immersion in 0.6 N hydrochloric acid, and DCB-H and DCB-HO were prepared by heat treatment (70°C for 8 h) and HO treatment (3% HO for 8 h), respectively. The surface topographies, elemental distributions and histological structures of the scaffolds were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and histological staining. The viability and osteogenic differentiation of TDSCs cultured on the scaffolds were evaluated live/dead cell staining and Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) testing, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western bolt (WB) analysis, alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) and alizarin red S (ARS) staining. The intramuscular implantation of the scaffolds in rats was also used to evaluate the effect of heat treatment and HO treatment on the osteoinductivity of DCB. Our results demonstrated that both treatments removed BMP-2 and osteocalcin (OCN) within the DCB and that DCB-H and DCB-HO had good cytocompatibility and reduced the osteogenic differentiation of TDSCs. Moreover, the results indicated that the DCB-H and DCB-HO groups had smaller areas of osteoid formation than did the DCB group, and the DCB-HO group had the smallest area among the three groups. Our study demonstrated that heat treatment could reduce the osteoinductivity of DCB, and that HO treatment was more effective than heat treatment.