Publication

Abstract : Periodontal disease involves destruction of alveolar bone around the teeth leading to defects or rather loss of the tooth if left untreated. In most cases, tissue regeneration does not happen spontaneously which calls for interventional therapy with bone substitutes. Bone grafts and guided tissue regeneration (GTR) and are the most common approaches. However, the success rate is variable because of high susceptibility to infection and immunologic response which limits the clinical improvement. Realizing the vital role of synthetic biomaterials with limited immune response and good biological activity, we developed a nanocomposite scaffold using ®-chitin hydrogel with bioactive glass ceramic nanoparticles (nBGC) by lyophilization technique. The prepared nanoparticles and nanocomposite scaffolds were characterized using FT-IR, XRD, DLS, TGA, AFM and SEM. Further, the porosity, swelling, in vitro degradation and biomineralization, cyto-toxicity, cell attachment and cell proliferation were also evaluated. The ®-chitin/nBGC composite scaffolds were found to have enhanced porosity, swelling, bioactivity and degradation in comparison to the control scaffolds. The composite scaffolds were non-toxic to human osteosarcoma (MG63) and human primary osteoblasts (POB) cells and supported cell attachment, spreading and proliferation. The ®-chitin/nBGC composite scaffolds were found to be satisfactory in all aspects, and these nanocomposite scaffolds could be promising candidates for the treatment of periodontal bone defects.