Zeinab Bakhtiari
1 
, Hanieh Nokhbatolfoghahaei
2* , Saeed Farzad-Mohajeri
3,4, Hannaneh Safiaghdam
5, Hossein Aminianfar
4, Maryam Rezia Rad
2, Massoumeh Jabbari Fakhr
4,6, Zahrasadat Paknejad
2, Simzar Hosseinzadeh
7, Mohammad Mehdi Dehghan
3,4, Mohammad Jafarian
8, Saeed Asgary
9, Arash Khojasteh
21 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Dental School, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Dental Research Center, Research Institute of Dental Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 Department of Surgery and Radiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
4 Institute of Biomedical Research, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
5 Student Research Committee, School of Dentistry, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
6 Department of Tissue Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran
7 Medical Nanotechnology and Tissue Engineering Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
8 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Dental School, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
9 Iranian Center for Endodontic Research, Research Institute of Dental Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: We aimed to design and evaluate a polyethylene glycol (PEG)-assisted purmorphamine (PM) delivery system in combination with β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) granules.
Methods: Various PEG molecular weights in conjunction with β-TCP granules were examined to control PM delivery, which showed that PEG with a molecular weight of 6000 g/mol was the most effective for PM release. Cell adhesion and morphology, cell proliferation, cytotoxicity, and differentiation were compared between PM-releasing β-TCP and control β-TCP. In vivo osteogenic capacity of PM-β-TCP granules in 8-mm critical-sized rat calvarial defects was evaluated after 4 and 8 weeks.
Results: The in vitro findings demonstrated that sustained PM release enhanced rBMSC proliferation and significantly increased osteogenic markers, including ALP activity. However, in vivo evaluation showed no statistically significant difference in new bone formation or angiogenesis between PM-treated and control β-TCP groups at either time point, although bone formation was observed in all groups.
Conclusion: Overall, the PEG-mediated PM delivery system promoted osteogenic activity in vitro but did not result in a significant improvement in bone regeneration in vivo under the conditions tested. These findings suggest that further optimization of dosage, release kinetics, and experimental conditions is required before clinical translation.