Bone cement based on vancomycin loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticle and calcium sulfate composites

A novel bone cement pellet, with sustained release of vancomycin (VAN), was prepared by mixing VAN loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) and calcium sulfate α-hemihydrate (CS) together. To improve the VAN loading ability, MSN was functionalized with aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APS) to give APS-MSN. The VAN loading content and entrapment efficiency of APS-MSN could reach up to 45.91±0.81% and 84.88±1.52%, respectively, much higher than those of MSN, which were only 3.91% and 4.07%, respectively. The nitrogen adsorption-desorption measurement results demonstrated that most of the VAN were in the pores of APS-MSN. The CS/VAN@APS-MSN composite pellet showed a strongly drug sustained release effect in comparison with CS control pellet. The in vitro cell assays demonstrated that CS/APS-MSN composite was highly biocompatible and suitable to use as bone cement. Furthermore, CS/VAN@APS-MSN pellet showed no pyrogenic effect and meet the clinical requirements on hemolytic reaction. These results imply that CS/VAN@APS-MSN was an ideal candidate to replace CS bone cement in the treatment of open fractures.