Natural lotus root-based scaffolds for bone regeneration

A high incidence of bone defects and the limitation of autologous bone grafting require 3 D scaffolds for bone repair. Compared with synthetic materials, natural edible materials possess outstanding advantages in terms of biocompatibility, bioactivities and low manufacturing cost for bone tissue engineering. In this work, attracted by the natural porous/fabric structure, good biocompatibility and bioactivities of the lotus root, the lotus root-based scaffolds were fabricated and investigated their potential to serve as natural porous bone tissue engineering scaffolds. The results indicated that the lotus root-based scaffolds possess suitable natural microstructure, excellent biocompatibility and promising functions, such as antioxidant capacity and angiogenesis promotion. Remarkably, lotus root scaffolds showed encouraging possibility of bone tissue engineering while the mineralized lotus root could further improve the bone regeneration in vivo. All the results demonstrated the bone regeneration potential of lotus root-based scaffolds equipped with suitable natural architecture, excellent biocompatibility, specific bioactivities and low manufacturing cost.