L-arginine modified mesoporous bioactive glass with ROS scavenging and NO release for periodontitis treatment

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by progressive alveolar bone resorption, and excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) is a key factor to disease progression. Therefore, scavenging ROS to alleviate inflammation and promote bone regeneration are promising strategies to treat periodontitis. In this study, L-arginine (L-Arg) was used to modify mesoporous bioactive glass (MBG), forming L-Arg modified MBG (MBG@L-Arg), which showed effective ROS-scavenging and NO release properties in cells, and realize the protection and restoration of cell's activity in ROS-rich microenvironment. Furthermore, MBG@L-Arg can induce macrophage polarization from M1 to M2 phenotype, and promote the osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells and human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs). MBG@L-Arg also regulated anti-inflammatory and antioxidant systems by inhibiting the NF-κB signaling pathway and activating the Nrf2 signaling pathway. Besides, NO-PKG signaling pathway was also activated, further promoting bone regeneration. The in vivo results demonstrated that MBG@L-Arg can efficiently inhibit inflammation-induced tissue destruction and promote osteogenesis regeneration. The quantitative bone loss in MBG@L-Arg group was 1.03 ± 0.05 mm, significantly lower than that of the periodontitis group (1.47 ± 0.13 mm), implying that MBG@L-Arg can work as multifunctional materials for periodontal tissue regeneration.