MXene reinforced microporous bacterial cellulose/sodium alginate dual crosslinked cryogel for bone tissue engineering

Abstract The entangled assembly of bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers does not provide a three-dimensional (3D) macroporous structure for cellular infiltration thus hindering its use as a scaffold for bone tissue engineering. In addition, it is difficult to achieve uniform dispersion of bioactive agents in entangled BC nanofibers. To address this, the BC nanofibers were integrated with MXene, a two-dimensional nanomaterial known for its electrical signaling and mechanical strength, along with sodium alginate to form cryogel. The cryogel was fabricated using a cross-linking to enhance its mechanical properties, pores for cellular infilteration. MXene incorporation not only increased water absorption (852% to 1446%) and retention (692% to 973%) ability but also significantly improved the compressive stress (0.85 MPa to 1.43 MPa) and modulus (0.22 MPa to 1.17 MPa) confirming successful MXene reinforcement in cryogel. Biological evaluation revealed that the optimum concentration of MXene increased the cell proliferation and the osteogenic role of fabricated scaffolds was also confirmed through osteogenic gene expressions. The macropores in reconstructed MXene-BC-based cryogel provided ample space for cellular proliferation. The osteogenic role of the scaffold was examined through various gene expressions. The Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QTPCR) revealed that MXene-loaded scaffolds especially in low concentration, had an obvious osteogenic effect hence concluding that BC can not only be reconstructed into the desired form but osteogenic property can be induced. These findings can open a new way of reconstructing BC into a more optimal structure to overcome its structural limitations and retain its natural bioactivities.