Engineering Multifunctional Hydrogel-Integrated 3D Printed Bioactive Prosthetic Interfaces for Osteoporotic...

3D printed porous titanium alloy implants is an advanced orthopedic material for joint replacement. However, the high risk of aseptic loosening and periprosthetic infection is difficult to avoid, and the declined autophagy of osteoporosis-derived bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (OP-BMSCs) further severely impairs the osseointegration under the osteoporotic circumstance. It is thus becoming urgently significant to develop orthopedic materials with autophagy regulation and antibacterial bioactivity. In this regard, a novel class of multifunctional hydrogel-integrated 3D printed bioactive prosthetic interfaces is engineered for in situ osseointegration in osteoporosis. The hydrogel is fabricated from the dynamic crosslinking of synthetic polymers, natural polymers, and silver nanowires to deliver autophagy-regulated rapamycin. Therefore, the resultant soft material exhibits antibacterial ability, biocompatibility, degradability, conductive, self-healing, and stimuli-responsive abilities. In vitro experiments demonstrate that the hydrogel-integrated 3D printed bioactive prosthetic interfaces can restore the declined cellular activities of OP-BMSCs by upregulating the autophagy level and show excellent antibacterial activity against S. aureus and MRSA. More remarkably, the multifunctional 3D printed bioactive prosthetic interfaces significantly improve osseointegration and inhibit infection in osteoporotic environment in vivo. This study provides an efficient strategy to develop novel prosthetic interfaces to reduce complications after arthroplasty for patients with osteoporosis.