Multi-drug delivery and osteogenic performance of β-tricalcium phosphate/alginate composite microspheres

AbstractTo address the insufficiencies in the systemic research of calcium phosphate/alginate (ALG) microspheres for multi-drug delivery and bone formation, this study investigated the multi-drug release kinetics and osteogenic behaviors of β-tricalcium phosphate/ALG microspheres. The results showed that different loaded drugs exhibited an early burst release phenomenon, and the drug loading capacity decreased as the microsphere particle size decreased. In vitro cell proliferation and dead/live staining demonstrated that the microspheres had excellent cytocompatibility, and in vivo experiments demonstrated the microspheres’ exceptional ability to enhance bone regeneration.Keywords: Alginateβ-tricalcium phosphatebone regenerationdrug deliverymicrospheres Authors contributionQingyun Fu: Conceptualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing – original draft. Zhenzhao Guo: Investigation, Data curation. Dongyin Bo: Data curation. Ke Huang: Data curation, Formal analysis. Ziyu Su: Investigation. Weihong Jin: Writing-review & editing. Zhentao Yu: Funding acquisition, Resources. Shulan Xu: Supervision, Resources. Hong Li: Conceptualization, Supervision, Funding acquisition, Resources.Additional informationFundingThe authors received the financial support given by Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (grant number 2021A1515111140, and 2021B1515120059), Science Research Cultivation Program of the Stomatological Hospital, Southern Medical University (grant number PY2022002), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 31971284).