Alginate-bioactive glass containing Zn and Mg composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Past researches on bone regeneration field have shown the positive impacts of the presence of Zinc and Magnesium ions in the bioactive glasses composition. However, there is no dedicated work on the effect of the aforementioned bio-glass on the polymer matrix composites. The key idea of the approach is to improve antibacterial efficacy, biological activity and mechanical properties of the bone composite scaffolds by incorporating bioactive glasses containing Zinc and Magnesium into alginate networks. The prepared scaffolds were characterized by SEM, ATR-FTIR and XRD analysis. Compression strength of obtained highly porous composite scaffolds was remarkably enhanced by the presence of bio-glass particles. The maximum compressive strength (1.7 MPa) was obtained for alginate composite containing 1 g Mg-Zn-BG. In vitro evaluation such as swelling, bio-mineralization, biodegradation were carried out, which indicates that incorporation of bio-glass promotes apatite deposition on composite scaffolds. Cytotoxicity, cell attachment and proliferation and osteogenic differentiation were also evaluated by culturing MG-63 cells on scaffolds. ICP analysis were conducted after 60 days of incubation in PBS solution to verify the ion release capability of the composite scaffolds, particularly Zn and Mg ions, which resulted in significant antibacterial efficacy enhancement of composite scaffolds against E. coli and S. aureus bacteria.