TABLE 1.

Comparative analysis of ceramic‐based scaffolds (CaSO₄, β‐TCP, and β‐TCP‐HA) with silk‐based scaffold (L‐RSF and M‐RSF)

		Ceramic scaffolds			Silk scaffolds
Property		CaSO4	β‐TCP	β‐TCP‐HA	L‐RSF	M‐RSF
Compression modulus		∼80 MPa (dry) ∼70 MPa (wet)	∼5 MPa	Not available	∼10 MPa (dry) ∼3 MPa (wet)	∼70 MPa (dry) ∼18 MPa (wet)
Porosity		10%–12%	60%–70%	60%–70%	90%–95%	40%–44%
Pore size		Randomly packed crystals < 5 μm	100–500 μm (macropores) ≤10 μm (micropores)	300–600 μm (macropores) ≤10 μm (micropores)	10–200 μm (random pores)	0–275 μm
% Cellular adhesion		92.2 ± 1.5	94.3 ± 1.2	91.4 ± 2.3	93.7 ± 2.2	88.7 ± 2.2
Proliferation (A 570 nm)		0.27 ± 0.03	0.41 ± 0.02	0.36 ± 0.06	0.48 ± 0.03	0.90 ± 0.07
Early markersa	Runx‐2	0.96 ± 0.11	0.99 ± 0.10	0.58 ± 0.06	1.2 ± 0.16	1.2 ± 0.09
	Osterix	0.85 ± 0.06	0.78 ± 0.11	0.48 ± 0.18	1.27 ± 0.14	1.5 ± 0.08
	BMP‐2	0.53 ± 0.09	0.48 ± 0.06	0.21 ± 0.10	1.77 ± 0.16	2.49 ± 0.09
Early to late markersa	Col1α1	0.33 ± 0.05	0.31 ± 0.03	0.13 ± 0.04	1.54 ± 0.11	2.92 ± 0.09
	BMP‐4	0.57 ± 0.04	0.81 ± 0.24	0.40 ± 0.04	1.31 ± 0.07	1.46 ± 0.11
	BMP‐6	0.74 ± 0.09	0.66 ± 0.13	0.25 ± 0.06	1.89 ± 0.06	2.35 ± 0.09
Late markersa	OPN	0.63 ± 0.04	0.61 ± 0.15	0.47 ± 0.11	1.51 ± 0.10	2.91 ± 0.09
	OCN	0.95 ± 0.06	0.86 ± 0.11	0.61 ± 0.10	1.47 ± 0.10	1.66 ± 0.09
ALP activity (ALP activity/100 μg of protein)		8.31 ± 0.65	11.18 ± 0.39	9.81 ± 0.13	14.98 ± 1.32	22.17 ± 1.42
Ca2+ deposition (A 405 nm)		1.31 ± 0.20	1.63 ± 0.16	1.79 ± 0.23	1.93 ± 0.12	2.69 ± 0.35

Abbreviations: ALP, alkaline phosphatase; CaSO₄, calcium sulphate; β‐TCP, beta tricalcium phosphate; β‐TCP‐HA, beta tricalcium phosphate with hydroxyapatite; L‐RSF, lyophilized‐regenerated silk fibroin; M‐RSF, microparticle‐regenerated silk fibroin.

^aLevel of marker expression is expressed in fold difference in (mean fluorescence intensity (M.F.I.).