Preparation and In Vitro Bioactivity Study of a Novel Hollow Mesoporous Bioactive Glass Nanofiber Scaffold

Abstract

In this study, a novel three-dimensional hollow mesoporous bioactive glass nanofiber scaffold has been synthesized with a template-assisted sol-gel method using bacterial cellulose (BC) as a template and nonionic triblock copolymer (P123) as a pore-directing agent, ethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), calcium nitrate tetrahydrate (CN), and triethyl phosphate (TEP) as glass precursors. Scanning and transmission electron microscopies, X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, and nuclear magnetic resonance method were applied to characterize the morphology, crystal structure, and chemical structure of the mesoporous bioactive glass nanofiber scaffold. Furthermore, the in vitro bioactivity and biocompatibility were also explored. The obtained scaffold depicted nanofiber-like morphology and interconnected three-dimensional network structure that replicated the BC template. The scaffold showed a large specific surface area (230.0 cm2 g−1) and pore volume (0.2 m3 g−1). More importantly, the scaffold exhibited excellent apatite-forming ability and cellular biocompatibility. We believe that the hollow mesoporous bioactive glass nanofiber scaffold has great potential application in bone tissue regeneration.