Synthesis and Biomechanical Studies of Nano Bioceramic Reinforced Hydrogel Composites For Cartilage Tissue Implants

Abstract

Cartilage damage is persistent and disease, which is having a great shock on people’s daily activity. Thus, repair or replacement has become an effective way to relieve pain. The technological advancement in biomaterials is not enough to overcome the challenges to develop a new material to replace defected Articular Cartilage (AC). The designed material is to fulfil the physical and mechanobiological properties of soft tissue. Hydrogels have drawn much attention as implant biomaterial due to their similarity with native articular cartilage. However, the discrepancy in mechanical properties, durability together with inadequacy to integrate with the surrounding tissue hinder the clinical application. Here, we reported the utilisation of bioceramics as a reinforcement to prepare a novel natural and synthetic polymer composite hydrogel by a physical crosslinking process. The reinforcement content was optimised and it was found that the introduction of bioceramic alters the physical, mechanical and biological properties by cumulative crosslinking in the hydrogel network. More significantly, the introduction of bioceramics in the hydrogel increases the compression strength and they exhibit time-dependent, rapid self-recoverable and fatigue resistant behaviour based on the cyclic loading-unloading compression test. The storage modulus is much higher than the loss modulus, demonstrates they are elastic dominant rather than fluid-like structure. Besides, the antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans microbes and the cell viability towards MG-63 osteoblast and L929 fibroblast-like cells provide a positive lane for developing the substitute biomaterial for cartilage tissue implants.