Potent bioactive bone cements impregnated with polystyrene-g-soybean oil-AgNPs for advanced bone tissue applications

Postoperative infection in orthopaedic and trauma surgery is one of the most feared complications. Recently, the high prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria has made the antibiotic treatment ineffective; thus novel non-antibiotic alternative approaches to this problem are urgently needed. Based on these expectations, in this work, in order to enhance the cytocompatibility and antibacterial performances of poly (methyl methacrylate (PMMA) and beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) bone cements were impregnated with polystyrene (PS)-g-soybean oil graft copolymer containing AgNPs (PS-Agsbox), and we assessed the antimicrobial activity of the fabricated bone cements against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Nanoparticles at concentration of 1.25% (5 beta-TCP) w/w in beta-TCP bone cements were able to inhibit pathogens growth, while a concentration of 3.75% (15PMMA) was needed for PMMA bone cement. Therefore, the impregnated bone cements with PS-AgsboxNPs may be further explored as an alternative antimicrobial therapy for the treatment of infected bone defects.