Synthesis, characterization and in vitro biological properties of simultaneous co-substituted Ti+4/Li+1 58s bioactive glass

•Li2O was added to Ti-substituted 58S bioactive glass and synthesized by the sol-gel method.•After soaking in SBF, the formation of the HA layer on all samples was confirmed.•Cell proliferation and ALP activity of MC3T3-E1 cells were significantly increased.•The addition of 5 mol% (Li2O) had the highest bactericidal effect against MRSA bacteria.•The sample with 5-5 mol% (TiO2-Li2O) was considered as the optimal sample. In this study, the effect of simultaneous substitution of titanium (Ti) and lithium (Li) to sol-gel derived 58S silicate BGs (60SiO2−(31−X)CaO−4P2O5−5TiO2−XLi2O, X=0, 3, 5, 8, 10 mol%) was investigated. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tests were used to examining synthesized BGs. Alkaline phosphate (ALP) activity, 3-(4, 5dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, and antibacterial studies were performed to study in vitro biological properties. Results revealed that the TL-BG contain fixed 5 mol% TiO2 and 5 mol% Li2O(TL-5) showed better in vitro bioactivity against other samples while increasing the Li2O up to 10 mol% led to a sharp decrease in hydroxyapatite growth rate and grains size. Altogether, the TL-5 was suggested as an optimal candidate for the further in vivo evaluations due to its better in vitro bioactivity, higher biocompatibility, antibacterial properties, maximum cell proliferation, and ALP activity.