Dr. Rajendra Kumar Singh, Dr. Dong Suk Yoon and Dr. Nandin Mandakbayar at ITREN developed ROS-responsive nanoceria decorated scaffold based on 3D printing for hastening regeneration of critical sized bone defects in diabetic animals. The study recently got published in journal Biomaterials (IF:15.304) under the title “Diabetic bone regeneration with nanoceria-tailored scaffolds by recapitulating cellular microenvironment: Activating integrin/TGF-β co-signaling of MSCs while relieving oxidative stress. (Read the article online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2022.121732).

Regenerating defective bones in diabetic patients is of boundless clinical importance. The elevated blood glucose levels and oxidative stress in defected bones hinders the neo bone regeneration process and hence developing a therapeutic biomaterial that modulates oxidative stress while supporting osteogenesis is of great interest. This motivated Dr. Rajendra Kumar Singh, Dr. Dong Suk Yoon and Dr. Nandin Mandakbayar to challenge the problem by fabricating nanoceria decorated 3D-printed PCL scaffolds as a biomaterial for bone therapeutics. The entire study was conducted under the guidance of Prof. Hae-Won Kim and Prof. Jung-Hwan Lee here at ITREN. The excellent ROS-responsiveness and the nano-topological cues provided by scaffolds directed MSCS to express higher levels of focal adhesion proteins, curvature-sensing membrane proteins and significantly higher levels of osteogenic differentiation through integrin-mediated TGF-β co-signaling activation pathway. Such regulatory effects in MSC were further proven invivo by implantation in critical-sized bone defects of diabetic animals. Together all, the studies revealed that the currently exploited nCe-scaffolds can be a promising drug- and cell-free therapeutic means to treat defective tissues like bone in diabetic conditions.