Plant-based Scaffolds in Bone Tissue Engineering

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the investigation of generating scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications from plant-based materials. The goal of this research was to create a cost-effective, sustainable, and renewable scaffold to enable cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation.
The initial material used in this work was decellularized grass (DCG), which was generated by removing all the cellular contents, while preserving the natural cellulosic backbone to generate a natural-derived structure to support cell alignment and growth. To improve the cell affinity of DCG, several biopolymers were functionalized onto DCG, including poly(dopamine) (PDA), chitosan (CS), gelatin, and biomimetic minerals (mSBF). DCG, PDA-mediated gelatin coated DCG (Gel/PDA-DCG) and PDA-mediated mineralized DCG (mSBF-PDA-DCG) exhibited high cell adhesion, proliferation, and viability comparable to tissue culture plastic (TCP), and sign of supporting the differentiation of MG63 cells.
To generate a 3D scaffold from plant material, delignified balsa wood (DLW) was investigated. After treating with sodium chlorite, the scaffold turned white indicating success lignin removal. DLW possessed a promising compressive Young’s modulus of 145 MPa, which resembles cancellous bone tissue. Fluorescent images showed that MG63 cell growth was apparent on the DLW scaffolds until 4 days, but the metabolic resazurin live cell assay failed to pick detect metabolically active cells, suggesting further cell culture optimization is required.
Further investigations into 3D scaffolds involved decellularized potato (DCP) and sweet potato (DCSP) tissues. These scaffolds were evaluated by their extent of decellularization over a 3-week period. DNA quantification showed that full DNA removal was achieved, and the scaffolds underwent a dramatic mass loss after 1-week decellularization. However, FT-IR analysis identified suspected protein peaks which suggested insufficient protein removal. Despite some promising characteristics, DCP and DCSP tissues did not present suitable biocompatibility with MG63 cells.
Inspired by decellularized potato scaffolds, a potato protein isolate (PPI) was investigated as a potential biomaterial to support MG63 cell growth. PPI films supported high levels of MG63 adhesion, proliferation and viability, comparable to that of TCP. Development of hydrogels, either native PPI or covalently crosslinked PPI, generated scaffold which had promising mechanical properties, water uptake and stability over 14 days in both PBS and trypsin solution. These PPI hydrogels also showed good evidence of cell compatibility and growth and are suitable for further development. These novel scaffolds exhibit great potential as renewable, sustainable and biocompatible materials for the treatment of bone tissue damage and disease.

Date of Award	24 Jun 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Paul De Bank (Supervisor), Sandhya Moise (Supervisor) & Marianne Ellis (Supervisor)