Vancomycin loaded halloysite nanotubes embedded in silk fibroin hydrogel applicable for bone tissue engineering

Abstract

Despite the progress in antibiotic treatment, it is still challenging to promote bone regeneration in the case of chronic bone infection. Here, we synthesized composite hydrogels containing silk fibroin/halloysite nanotubes loaded with vancomycin. The hydrogel possessed 79.32% porosity, acceptable cell attachment, and biocompatibility. The release kinetics of vancomycin from halloysite and halloysite embedded in hydrogel were 60% and 32.5% over 23 days, respectively. Disk diffusion also showed an appropriate antibacterial activity over 10 days. Alkaline phosphatase and Alizarin red staining proved osteoconductivity of the scaffold. Totally, the data showed that composite hydrogel can be considered for treatment of bone infection.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Bone infection
• drug delivery
• halloysite nanotubes
• silk fibroin
• vancomycin

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Pasteur Institute of Iran.