Assessments of EISA-synthesized mesoporous bioactive glass incorporated in chitosan-gelatin matrix as potential nanocomposite scaffolds for bone regeneration

Abstract

Designing bone substitute scaffolds using soft materials with appropriate mechanical and biological features is still a challenging issue. In our current work, we have aimed to design biodegradable and bioactive nanocomposite systems by incorporation of ordered mesoporous SiO2–CaO–P2O5 (MBG) in chitosan-gelatin (CG) blends. MBG was derived by the combination of sol-gel/hydrothermal/evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) techniques. The FE-SEM results showed that MBG nanoparticles had almost spherical shape with good homogeneity and particle size of approximately smaller than 100 nm. TEM images confirmed that the order of mesostructures was enhanced depending on Si content where 85SiO2.10CaO.5P2O5 (M85S) had the most order of porosities. The highest surface area and pore volume belonged to M85S which were 389.01 m2 g−1 and 0.378 cm3 g−1, respectively. Incorporation of M85S in CG makes macro-porous internal morphologies of scaffolds with pore sizes ranging from 20 to 120 μm. The introduction of MBG improved the compression strength of CG from 0.7 to 4.5 MPa. Moreover, the physicochemical properties including biodegradation rates and swelling ratios were decreased and the densities of scaffolds were increased. MTT and ALP assay results indicated no toxicity, proper cell attachments and proliferations on the pore surfaces and bone formation capability of scaffolds, respectively which were intensified by increasing the MBG content. These findings suggest that the developed scaffolds possess prerequisites and can be used as potential scaffolds for hard tissue regeneration.