A novel composite scaffold comprising ultralong hydroxyapatite microtubes and chitosan: preparation and application in drug delivery

In this work, a novel ultralong hydroxyapatite microtube (HMT)-chitosan (CHS) composite scaffold has been successfully prepared. The mechanical properties of the HMT-CHS composite scaffold is greatly improved compared with the CHS-hydroxyapatite nanorod scaffold and the pure chitosan scaffold. By using gentamicin sulfate (GS) as the model drug, the GS-loaded HMT-CHS composite scaffold has a high drug loading capacity, sustained drug release behavior and high antibacterial activity. The as-prepared HMT-CHS composite scaffold has promising applications in various fields such as drug delivery and bone defect repair.