Fabrication and biological evaluation of polyether ether ketone(PEEK)/bioceramic composites

The repair of vascularized bone defects represents a significantly clinical challenge, and vascular regeneration is one of the necessary factors to promote bone tissue regeneration. To effectively repair large bone defects, new bone tissue must regenerate with a rich vascular network. Therefore, the development of biomaterials that can promote the regeneration of vascularized bone tissue is currently receiving attention from researchers. In this study, Li–Ca–Si bioceramics (LCS) containing Li, Ca, and Si elements was developed, then LCS was compounded with PEEK to prepare PEEK+10% LCS, PEEK+20% LCS, PEEK+30% LCS, and the effect of LCS-PEEK composite biomaterials on the proliferation and angiogenic ability of human umbilical vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs) further explored by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), scanning electron microscope (SEM), quantitative real-time PCR (QPCR), Western Blotting and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results showed that HUVECs inoculated on 30%LCS ​+ ​PEEK material exhibited the best proliferation ability. And the adhesion ability of endothelial cells on PEEK gradually increased with the increase of LCS contents. Furthermore, the angiogenic ability of HUVECs on LCS-PEEK composites was examined using QPCR and Western blotting, and the results showed that the expression of angiogenic-related genes and proteins of HUVECs on PEEK composites gradually increased with increasing LCS concentration. These results demonstrated that the angiogenic ability of HUVECs was effectively stimulated by LCS-modified PEEK materials. The present results indicate that the PEEK material can be modified with bioceramics to promote angiogenesis, and this study lay the foundation for the subsequent development of scaffolds that promote vascularized bone tissue regeneration.