Macro porous tannin spray-dried powder scaffolds with stem cells for bone engineering

Skeletal defects resulting from trauma and disease represent a major clinical problem worldwide, exacerbated further by global population growth and increasing number of elderly people. As treatment options are limited, bone tissue engineering opens the possibility to grow unlimited amount of tissue products with enhanced therapeutic potential for the management of clinical cases characterized by severe bone loss. Bone engineering relies on the use of compliant biomaterial scaffolds, osteocompetent cells, and biologically active agents. In this pinion paper, we drive the attention to a new application of a natural material: Tannin. Among others materials, porous tannin spray-dried powder (PTSDs) has approved to human use. We can use PTSDs as reconstructive materials with low cost, biocompatibility and potential ability to be replaced by bone in vivo. In this study macro PTSDS scaffolds with defined geometry, porosity and mechanical properties could be manufactured using a combination of casting technology and porogen leaching, by mixing PTSDs and hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 with polyethylene glycol macro particles. The expected results show that the scaffolds developed could support attachment, long-term viability and osteogenic differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymal progenitors. The combination of select macro porous PTSDs scaffolds with patient-specific osteocompetent cells offers new opportunities to grow autologous bone grafts with enhanced clinical potential for complex skeletal reconstructions. [Display omitted] •Engineering bone substitutes by culturing human cells onto natural biomaterial: Tannin.•Tannin can be prepared in such a way to resemble ceramic with controlled porous volume.•Human cell attachment with tannin is 6-folds better than bone-like apatite materials.•Large defects are better repaired by tannin scaffolds than scaffolds of hydroxyapatite.