Sepide Arefi, - Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
Zivar Salehi, - Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
Mahvash Hadavi, - Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
S.Shirin Shahangian - Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

The term ‘bone tissue engineering’ means the application of tissue engineering to restore,maintain or improve bone tissue function based on the development of biological substitutes. A major goal in tissue engineering is design of scaffold. Hydroxyapatite (HA) has good hydrophilicity and bioactivity, and has been widely used for bone repair and tissue engineering, but its mechanical property is poor. Moreover, HA is easily damaged under physiological conditions. Zein has been extensively used in a wide range of tissue engineering due to its good cell compatibility It was reported that a 3D Zein porous scaffold could promote the adhesion, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. In this study, the Zein/HA scaffold for bone tissue engineering was prepared using salt leaching method and characterized with SEM and FTIR for pore distribution analysis and chemical bands respectively. The scaffold mechanical properties were evaluated by compressive test measurement and its biodegradability was studied for 28 days in phosphate buffered saline. C2C12 cell line as myogenic progenitors was seeded on Zein/HA scaffold and after 3 days, proliferation of cells was measured using MTT assay and morphology was detected with SEM imaging. Results demonstrated that the Zein/HA nanocomposite had appropriate biocompatibility and cell morphology. SEM images showed nanocomposite possessed macropore networks with mean pore size ranging between 120 to 450 μm. The Zein/HA had improved compressive modulus and ultimate compressive stress compared with zein scaffold. Beta-catenin gene expression analysis is currently in progress to further examine the osteoconductive response to the novel nanocomposite scaffold.