A poly(lactide‐co‐glycolide) film loaded with abundant bone morphogenetic protein‐2: A substrate‐promoting osteoblast attachment, proliferation, and differentiation in bone tissue engineering

We explored a novel biodegradable poly(lactide‐co‐glycolide) (PLGA) film loaded with over 80 wt % bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)‐2, which was regarded as a substrate‐promoting osteoblast attachment, proliferation, and differentiation for application of bone tissue engineering. Using phospholipid as a surfactant, BMP‐2 was modified as a complex (PBC) for dispersing in PLGA/dichloromethane solution. The PLGA film loaded with BMP‐2 and phospholipid complex (PBC‐PF) showed rough and draped morphology with high entrapment efficiency exceeding 80% and good hydrophilicity, respectively. The in vitro release study of BMP‐2 showed that about 50% BMP‐2 was slowly and continuously released from PBC‐PF within 5 weeks and had a short initial burst release only in the last 1.5 days, which was better than serious burst release of PLGA film loaded with pure BMP‐2 without phospholipid (BMP‐PF) as control. By comparison with other PLGA films and tissue culture plates, it was confirmed that PBC‐PF significantly promoted the attachment, proliferation, and differentiation of osteoblasts with higher entrapment efficiency and better sustained release. These advantages illustrated that PBC‐PF could be a potential substrate providing long‐term requisite growth factors for osteoblasts, which might be applied in bone tissue engineering. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 103A: 2786–2796, 2015