Study on Synergistic Effects of Nanohydroxyapatite/High-Viscosity Carboxymethyl Cellulose Scaffolds Stimulated by LIPUS for Bone Defect Repair of Rats

Despite the self-healing capacity of bone, the regeneration of critical-size bone defects remains a major clinical challenge. In this study, nanohydroxyapatite (nHAP)/high-viscosity carboxymethyl cellulose (hvCMC, 6500 mPa·s) scaffolds and low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (HA-LIPUS) were employed to repair bone defects. First, hvCMC was prepared from ramie fiber, and the degree of substitution (DS), purity, and content of NaCl of hvCMC samples were 0.91, 99.93, and 0.017%, respectively. Besides, toxic metal contents were below the permissible limits for pharmaceutically used materials. Our results demonstrated that the hvCMC is suitable for pharmaceutical use. Second, nHAP and hvCMC were employed to prepare scaffolds by freeze-drying. The results indicated that the scaffolds were porous, and the porosity was 35.63 ± 3.52%. Subsequently, the rats were divided into four groups (n = 8) randomly: normal control (NC), bone defect (BD), bone defect treated with nHAP/hvCMC scaffolds (HA), and bone defect treated with nHAP/hvCMC scaffolds and stimulated by LIPUS (HA-LIPUS). After drilling surgery, nHAP/hvCMC scaffolds were implanted in the defect region of HA and HA-LIPUS rats. Meanwhile, HA-LIPUS rats were treated by LIPUS (1.5 MHz, 80 mW cm–2) irradiation for 2 weeks. Compared with BD rats, the maximum load and bone mineral density of HA-LIPUS rats were increased by 20.85 and 51.97%, respectively. The gene and protein results indicated that nHAP/hvCMC scaffolds and LIPUS promoted the bone defect repair and regeneration of rats significantly by activating Wnt/β-catenin and inhibiting OPG/RANKL signaling pathways. Overall, compared with BD rats, nHAP/hvCMC scaffolds and LIPUS promoted bone defect repair significantly. Furthermore, the research results also indicated that there are synergistic effects for bone defect repair between the nHAP/hvCMC scaffolds and LIPUS.