Nanostructured calcium phosphate porous microspheres are of great potential in drug delivery and bone regeneration due to their large specific surface area, biocompatibility, and similarity to inorganic component of osseous tissue. In this work, strontium (Sr)-doped amorphous calcium phosphate porous microspheres (SrAPMs) were synthesized through a microwave-hydrothermal method using fructose 1,6-bisphosphate trisodium salt as the source of phosphate ions. The SrAPMs showed a mesoporous structure and a relatively high specific area. Compared with the hydroxyapatite nanorods prepared by using Na2HPO4·12H2O as the phosphorus source, the SrAPMs with a higher specific surface area were more effective in drug loading using vancomycin as the antiobiotics of choice and consequently having a higher antibacterial efficiency both on agar plates and in broths. Furthermore, to assess the potential application of SrAPMs in bone defect repair, a novel biomimetic bone tissue-engineering scaffold consisting of collagen (Coll) and SrAPMs was constructed using a freeze-drying fabrication process. Incorporation of the SrAPMs not only improved the mechanical properties, but also enhanced the osteogenesis of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. The in vivo experiments demonstrated that the SrAPMs/Coll scaffolds remarkably enhanced new bone formation compared with the Coll and APMs/Coll scaffolds in a rat critical-sized calvarial defect model at 8 weeks postimplantation. In summary, SrAPMs developed in this work are promising as antibiotic carriers and may encourage bone formation when combined with collagen.
Keywords: biomimetic; bone regeneration; calcium phosphate; drug delivery; scaffold.