Unified bilayer membranes with mechanically reinforced interface for stage-adaptive bone regeneration
Guided bone regeneration using double-layered membranes is often hindered by poor interfacial integration, insufficient stability, and limited adaptability to regulate the complex healing process. Herein, we develop a unified bilayer membrane featuring a reinforced dual-crosslinking interface between barrier and porous layers through a homogeneous isomeric in-situ fabrication strategy. Its superior mechanical strength (~156 MPa in dry state and ~8.6 MPa in wet state) ensures the long-term degradation stability and bioactivity in vivo. Combined with sequentially released bioactive components, we show that the unified bilayer membrane regulates antibacterial functions, immunomodulation, neurovascularization, and osteogenesis, thereby enabling stage-adaptive bone regeneration. We test in a rat critical-sized cranial defect model to demonstrate that the membrane significantly outperforms the clinical collagen membrane, achieving ~2.7-fold greater bone volume regeneration after 8 weeks. This work further elucidates the spatiotemporal osteogenic mechanisms of the unified bilayer membrane, which constructs a well-integrated regenerative microenvironment and promotes a tightly interconnected neurovascular-osteogenic communication network during stage-adaptive bone repair.
Authors
- Yuanchi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7668-8428)
- Zili Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5697-1872)
- Chenyu Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6689-7293)
- Yangyi Nie
- Cairong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3151-0607)
- Ling Qin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6173-6167)
- Yuxiao Lai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8648-6595)
- Wei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5663-4438)
- Du Y
- Zhiheng Luo
- Xiangcheng Lei
- Junjie Deng
- Zhenyu Yao
- Yujie Liu
- Yuyang Zhang
- Jing Long
Institutions
- Tianjin University (CN)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- University of Macau (MO)
- Manufacturing Institute (US)
- Tianjin Hospital (CN)
- Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-06-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74932-x
- Primary Topic
- Bone Tissue Engineering Materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Shenzhen Fundamental Research Program