Fabrication of microporous bacterial cellulose embedded with magnetite and hydroxyapatite nanocomposite scaffold for bone tissue engineering

In this study, nanocomposite scaffold was synthesized for bone tissue engineering using bacterial cellulose (BC) with magnetite (Fe3O4) and hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles through ultrasonic irradiation. The physicochemical analysis of the composite (BC-Fe3O4-HA) revealed uniform dispersion of the nanoparticles in the BC matrix with calcium to phosphorus (Ca/P) ratio of 1.63 and 1.56 for the surface and cross section, respectively. The crystallinity index of BC decreased from 82.5% to 62% in the composite. The magnetic field responsive behavior of the magnetic nanoparticle incorporated bacterial cellulose sheets investigated by vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), showed a decrease in saturation magnetization of the nanocomposite from 15.84 to 3.94 emu/g at +/- 10 kOe after deposition of HA with superparamagnetic characteristic. Swelling and porosity studies showed significant decrease in swelling ability with the incorporation of the nanoparticles, while maintaining high degree of porosity around 80% in the nanocomposite scaffold. Cell culture experiment demonstrated that the scaffold is non-toxic to mouse fibroblast L929 cells and biocompatible for osteoblast (MC3T3-E1 cell line) attachment and proliferation. This suggests the prepared scaffold could be a promising scaffold for bone tissue engineering.