Fabrication and in vitro evaluation of natural duck beak bone/synthetic hydroxyapatite bi-layered scaffold for bone regeneration

•A novel duck beak bone/synthetic hydroxyapatite bi-layered scaffold was developed.•The hydroxyapatite scaffold was immersed into the duck beak bone slurry and re-sintered.•The outer duck beak bone layer was fused well with the inner hydroxyapatite layer.•The bi-layered scaffold showed enhanced MG63 cell response. Although wasted duck beak bone (DBB) has a potentially valuable use as a natural bone graft material, its poor mechanical properties limit its use for orthopedic applications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate potential use of DBB particle-coated synthetic hydroxyapatite (HAp) bi-layered scaffolds as novel scaffolds for bone regeneration. Porous DBB/HAp bi-layered scaffolds comprising inner HAp and outer DBB layers were fabricated using a polymeric template-coating technique. The frame of the bi-layered scaffold consisted of a dense HAp inner layer and porous DBB outer layer, in which DBB particles were interconnected, with rough surface. The compressive strength of the bi-layered scaffolds was not influenced by the DBB particle coating. In vitro evaluation of MG63 human osteoblast-like cells cultured for 7 and 14 days on the bi-layered scaffold showed greater cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation than those on the HAp scaffold (control). These results demonstrated the excellent potential of DBB/HAp bi-layered scaffolds as bone graft substitutes.