Evaluation of Osteogenic Differentiation of C2c12 Cells on Zein and Zein/Hydroxyapatite Nanocomposite Scaffolds

Background and aim: three-dimensional biomimetic scaffolds play an important role in reconstruction and regeneration of damaged bone tissues. they are porous biocompatible materials with suitable microarchitectures that are designed to allow for cell adhesion, growth and proliferation. in this study zein, a major storage protein of corn and nanohydroxyapatite as a bioceramic that have similar properties of mineral components of natural bone have been used.methods: zein and zein/hydroxyapatite porous scaffolds were made using salt-leaching method. the biocompatibility, biodegradability and porosity of fabricated scaffolds were measured. c2c12 cells were cultured on prepared scaffolds and their osteoblastic differentiation was evaluated using runx2 gene expression through real-time pcr.results: the results showed that zein and zein/hydroxyapatite scaffolds have a total porosity of 61.1 – 70.6% and potential usage as biocompatible and biodegradable biomaterials in tissue engineering and osteogenic differentiation applications. we have also provided that the expression levels of runx2 in cells cultured on zein scaffolds were significantly higher than zein/hydroxyapatite scaffolds.conclusion: results suggested that zein/hydroxyapatite scaffolds could be appropriate candidate for bone tissue regeneration and help osteogenic differentiation of c2c12, although we should investigate much more properties of these biocomposites.