Investigation on the physical properties and biocompatibility of zirconia-alumina-silicate@diopside composite materials and its in vivo toxicity study in embryonic zebrafish

Abstract

Bioceramic materials have a wide range of applications in the biomedical field such as in the repair of bone defects and dental surgery. Silicate-based bioceramics have attracted biomedical researchers interest due to their bioactivity and biodegradability. In this study extended the scope of ZAS utilization in bone tissue engineering by introducing calcium-magnesium-silicate (diopside CMS) as an interface material aim to develop a machinable bioceramic composite (ZASCMS) by the sol-gel method. The physicochemical characterization in vitro biological properties and in vivo zebrafish cytotoxicity study of ZAS-based composites as a function of CMS contents 0 25 50 75 and 100 wt% were performed. Results showed that the as-prepared ZASCMS possessed porous architecture with well-interconnected pore structure. Results also revealed that the mechanical properties of ZASCMS composite materials were gradually improved with increasing CMS contents. The ZASCMS composites with more than 50 wt% CMS had the highest compressive strength and modulus of 6.78 ? 0.62 MPa and 340.10 ? 16.81 MPa respectively. Regarding in vitro bioactivities the composite scaffolds were found to stimulate osteoblast-like UMR-106 cell adhesion growth and proliferation. The antibacterial activity of the ZASCMS composite scaffolds was tested against Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) also exhibited an antibacterial property. Furthermore the in vivo studies using embryonic zebrafish were exposed to as-prepared particles (0-500 ?g mL?1) and showed that the synthesized ZAS CMS and ZASCMS composite particles were non-toxic based on the evaluation of survivability hatching rate and embryonic morphology. In conclusions our results indicated that the synthesized composite exhibited their biological properties and antibacterial activity which could well be a promising material with high potential to be applied in orthopaedic and dental tissue engineering. ? 2023 The Royal Society of Chemistry.