Porous calcium silicate bioactive material-alginate composite for bone regeneration

Bone tissue engineering aims to address bone-related problems that arise from trauma, infection, tumors, and surgery. Polymer and calcium silicate bioactive material (BM) based composites are commonly preferred as potential materials for bone treatment. However, the polymer has low bioactivity, thus, the current work aims to prepare a composite scaffold based on BM-sodium alginate (Alg) by varying the Alg percentage to optimize the porous nature of the composite. Primarily, the BM was synthesized by a simple precipitation method using rice husk and eggshell as the precursors of silica and calcium, while the BM-Alg composite was prepared by a facile cross-linking approach. The BM-Alg composite was studied using XRD, FTIR, SEM, and BET techniques. Further, an in vitro bioactivity study was performed in simulated body fluid (SBF) which shows hydroxyapatite formation. The in vitro haemolysis study displayed less than 5% haemolysis. Subsequently, the angiogenesis study was carried out using the ex ovo CAM model which reveals enhanced neovascularization. The MG-63 cells were used to study the biocompatibility, and they displayed a non-toxic nature at a concentration of 10 mg mL^-1. Further, the in vivo biocompatibility results also reveal its non-toxic nature. Thus, the BM-Alg composite acts as a potential biocompatible material for bone tissue engineering applications.