A bioinformatics approach to study the role of calcium phosphate properties in bone regeneration

Calcium phosphates (CaPs) are extensively used as biomaterials for bone repair and regeneration and are considered an interesting synthetic alternative for natural bone grafts. However, the bone regenerative potential of many CaP bone graft substitutes requires further improvements. The bioactivity of CaPs is regulated by a variety of properties, including their chemical composition and (surface) structural properties. In this study, we performed a comprehensive characterization of six CaP ceramics that had been previously tested in several in vitro and in vivo studies, allowing us to in silico distinguish osteoinductive and non-osteoinductive CaP ceramics. The numerical parameters obtained from this characterization were further correlated with osteogenesis-associated gene expression and pathways of osteoblastic MG63 cells cultured on these six CaP ceramics. The results showed, among others, the influence of both chemical and structural parameters on cytoskeleton- and extracellular matrix-related gene expression and osteogenesis-associated pathways such as MAPK and BMP. The bioinformatics approach presented here allows exploring the transcriptional landscape induced by CaP ceramics and gaining fundamental knowledge about cell-biomaterial interactions.