To effectively repair irregular shaped bone defects by a minimally invasive procedure, the exploration of an injectable gel to fill the defect is desirable. Herein, positively and negatively charged polyurethane microspheres (PU-A and PU-B) with adjustable zeta potentials as well as the hydroxyapatite-loaded PU microsphere (PU-A/HA) and the dexamethasone-loaded PU microsphere (PU-B/Dex) were successfully prepared, and the oppositely charged microspheres could self-assemble into injectable gels with 3D structures by a mutually electrostatic attraction. The self-assembly PU-A/HA+PU-B/Dex gel exhibited a much higher elastic modulus (about 0.20 MPa) and excellent shear-thinning and self-recovery behaviors, which would allow the gel to be injected through a fine syringe to fill the irregular defect. The in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated that the coexistence of HA and Dex in PU-A/HA+PU-B/Dex gel had a synergistic effect on cell differentiation and accelerating new bone formation, displaying a good prospect as an injectable gel for bone repair in minimally invasive surgery.
Keywords: bone repair; electrostatic interaction; oppositely charged microspheres; polyurethane; self-assembly.