Alendronate decorated nano hydroxyapatite in mesoporous silica: Cytotoxicity and osteogenic properties

► Hydroxyapatite-modified mesoporous silica materials (MSH) have been developed. ► MSH showed lower cytotoxicity than pure mesoporous silica. ► The osteogenesis of MSCs treated by alendronate (AL) decrodated MSH was evaluated. ► The osteogenesis of MSCs induced by MSH-AL is comparable to that induced by the osteogenic medium. Mesoporous silica is a promising drug delivery vehicle due to its large surface area and order porous structure. Hydroxyapatite-modified mesoporous silica materials (MSH) have been developed, and the cytotoxicity of MSH and unmodified mesoporous silica (HMS) has also been studied in this work. The results indicated that MSH exhibited lower cytotoxicity than HMS. The drug release property of MSH was also investigated in this paper. Alendronate (AL) was laden into MSH and HMS, respectively. MSH exhibited long release period lasting over 30 days with a weak burst release in the first 5 days; however, the AL release period of HMS was just 5 days with a remarkable burst release. In addition, the osteogenic commitment induced in human marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) by MSH-alendronate (MSH-AL) was also investigated, and the osteogenesis of MSCs was evaluated by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) assay. The osteogenesis of MSCs induced by MSH-AL is comparable to that induced by the osteogenic medium. Taken together, MSH can be severed as potential bone repair materials with lower cytotoxicity.