Malignant bone tumors have caused great obstacles and serious illnesses for tumor recurrence and difficulty in reconstructing and repairing large defeats after tumorectomy due to the poor prognosis for metastatic relapse or recurrence for patients with the axial disease.

In a study published in Chemical Engineering Journal, a research team led by Prof. LI Jiusheng from the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (SARI) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), collaborated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People’s Hospital, Shenzhen University, etc. reported a novel therapeutic treatment of anti-tumor/bone repair by combination of MoS₂ nanosheets with 3D printed bioactive borosilicate glass scaffolds.

Based on the proof of concept of “integrative treatment”, scientists reported for the first time on the concept of “integrative treatment” on local combating tumor and bone tissue repairing by integrating anti-tumor/bone repair functions together by fixing MoS₂ on the surface of materials. The material’s properties, bioactive ability, photothermal stability and capability, osteogenesis and the anti-tumor ability of BGM composite scaffolds in vitro and vivo were later evaluated and investigated in this study.

The MoS₂-integrated composite BG (BGM) scaffolds can rapidly and effectively elevate temperature, and they exhibited excellent photothermal stability. Notably, the BGM scaffolds can effectively reduce the viability of osteosarcoma cells (MNNG/HOS) in vitro as well as inhibit the tumor growth in nude mice. Furthermore, the prepared BGM scaffolds can stimulate the proliferation and differentiation of rat bone mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs), upregulate the expression of osteogenesis-related genes in vitro and promote in vivo bone repair in critical-sized rat calvarial defects.

Therefore, the “integrative treatment” BGM scaffolds have great potential to be applied in the treatment of anti-tumor and bone repair, offering ideas for the manufacture of new materials in the tissue engineering field.

Schematic diagram for investigation on the integrative treatment of anti-tumor/bone repairing with 3D printing BGM scaffolds (Image by SARI)