Antibacterial Capability, Physicochemical Properties, and Biocompatibility of nTiO₂ Incorporated Polymeric Scaffolds

Cijun Shuai; Chenying Shuai; Pei Feng; Chengde Gao; Shuping Peng; Youwen Yang

doi:10.3390/polym10030328

Antibacterial Capability, Physicochemical Properties, and Biocompatibility of nTiO₂ Incorporated Polymeric Scaffolds

Polymers (Basel). 2018 Mar 16;10(3):328. doi: 10.3390/polym10030328.

Authors

Cijun Shuai^{1

2

3}, Chenying Shuai⁴, Pei Feng⁵, Chengde Gao⁶, Shuping Peng⁷, Youwen Yang^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China. shuai@csu.edu.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China. shuai@csu.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Organ Injury, Aging and Regenerative Medicine of Hunan Province, Changsha 410008, China. shuai@csu.edu.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China. shuaichenying@csu.edu.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China. fengpei@csu.edu.cn.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China. gaochengde@csu.edu.cn.
⁷ The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis of the Chinese Ministry of Health, Xiangya Hospital, Cancer Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha 410008, China. shuping@csu.edu.cn.
⁸ Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China. yangyouwen@csu.edu.cn.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China. yangyouwen@csu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Postoperative infection is a common risk which brings about failure in bone transplantation. In this study, nano titanium dioxide (nTiO₂) was incorporated into Polyetheretherketone/polyglycolicacid (PEEK/PGA) blends to construct antibacterial scaffolds via selective laser sintering. Antibacterial capability was assessed using Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The results demonstrated that the scaffolds with nTiO₂ presented an effective antibacterial activity, which might be attributed to that nTiO₂ would do the mechanical and oxidative damage to bacteria by occurring contact actions and generating reactive oxygen species (ROS), and thus killed bacteria from structure and function. Moreover, nTiO₂ could enhance the tensile strength and modulus of scaffolds due to the reinforcing effect and its uniform disperse. And the cell culture experiments showed that nTiO₂ stimulated cellular attachment and proliferation. Besides, it also elevated the hydrophily and thermal stability of scaffolds. These results suggested that the polymeric scaffolds incorporated nTiO₂ had potential application in bone tissue engineering.

Keywords: antibacterial capability; cellular attachment; nano titanium dioxide; polymeric scaffolds.