Multifunctional 3D matrixes based on flexible bioglass nanofibers for potential application in postoperative therapy...

Postoperative treatment of osteosarcoma is one of the major challenging clinical issues since both elimination of residual tumors and acceleration of bone regeneration should be considered. Photothermal therapy has been widely studied due to its advantages of small side-effect, low-toxicity, high local selectivity and noninversion, and bone tissue engineering is an inevitable trend in postoperative treatment of osteosarcoma. In this study, we combined the tissue engineering and photothermal therapy together, and developed a kind of multifunctional nanofibrous 3D matrixes for postoperative treatment of osteosarcoma. The flexible bioactive glass nanofibers (BGNFs) prepared by sol-gel electrospinning and calcination acted as the basic blocks, and the genipin-crosslinked gelatin (GNP-Gel) acted as the cement to bond the BGNFs forming a stable 3D structure. The stable porous 3D scaffolds were obtained through ice crystal templating method and freeze-drying technology. The obtained GNP-Gel/BGNF 3D matrixes showed a nanofibrous structure that highly biomimetics the extracellular matrix. The excellent compression recovery performance in water of these matrixes made them suitable for minimally invasive surgery. In addition, these 3D matrixes were not only biocompatible in vitro, but also benefit for the formation of mineralized bone in vivo. Furthermore, the dark blue GNP-Gel also acted as the photothermal agent, which endowed the GNP-Gel/BGNF 3D matrixes with efficient photothermal antitumor and photothermal antibacterial performance without addition of other toxic photothermal agents. Therefore, this study provides an ingenious avenue to prepare multifunctional nanofibrous 3D matrixes with photothermal therapy for postoperative treatment of osteosarcoma.