A Unified Therapeutic-Prophylactic Tissue-Engineering Scaffold Demonstrated to Prevent Tumor Recurrence and Overcoming Infection toward Bone Remodeling

Abstract

Osteosarcoma occurs in children and adolescents frequently and leads to a high fatality rate. Although surgical resection is the most common methods in clinic, patients always suffer from tumor metastasis and recurrence and it is difficult for them to self-repair large bone defects. Furthermore, the postoperative infection from bacteria triggers an inflammatory response and hinders the bone-repair process. This work demonstrates a gadolinium (Gd)-complex and molybdenum sulfide (MoS₂ ) co-doped N-acryloyl glycinamide (NAGA)/gelatin methacrylate (Gel-MA) multifunctional hydrogel (GMNG). The combination between NAGA and Gel-MA endows the GMNG with attractive mechanical properties and controllable degradation ability. The MoS₂ improves the hydrogel system, which has excellent photothermal ability to kill tumor cells and inhibit bacterial infection both in vitro and in vivo. Based on the Gd-complex, the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) effect can be used to monitor the position and degradation situation of the hydrogel. Notably, accompanied by the degradation of GMNG hydrogel, the gradually released Gd³⁺ from the hydrogel exhibits osteogenic property and could promote new bone formation efficiently in vivo. Therefore, this strategy supplies a method to prepare multifunctional bone-defect-repair materials and is expected to represent a significant guidance and reference to the development of biomaterials for bone tissue engineering.

Keywords: MRI; bacteriostasis; bone repair; gadolinium; oncotherapy; photothermal therapy.