Potassium-doped mesoporous bioactive glass: Synthesis, characterization and evaluation of biomedical properties

A bifunctional mesoporous bioactive glass (MBG) with composition (49SiO₂·20CaO·20Na₂O·7K₂O·4P₂O₅ mol%) was synthesized by a facile sol-gel method, using polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000) as a soft template. The structure, morphology (spherical with approximate size 1μm) and composition of MBG were determined by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), respectively. The surface area (189.53m²g^-1 with the pore size of 21nm) of MBG was measured by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) analysis. The formation of hydroxyapatite (HAp) layer on the glass surface upon immersion in simulated body fluid (SBF) was monitored through X-ray diffraction (XRD) which indicates enhanced bioactivity as compared to previous studies. The animals study, protein adsorption ability, and cytotoxicity investigations show no tissue damage, good biomedical properties and no encumbrance with cell cycle (even at a concentration of 80μg/mL). Moreover, the cell proliferation analysis reveals the non-toxic property of MBG at a concentration of 20μg/mL. Notably, a cumulative drug (ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic) release of 75% was observed for first 48h and the further release of 90% was observed over a period of two weeks. The synthesized MBG also shows osteoblast activity and bone mineralization as revealed by alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) and osteocalcin formation.