Synergistic integration of plant derived galactomannan and MXene to produce multifunctional nanocomposites with antibacterial and osteogenic properties

This study proposes to combine plant-derived galactomannan and MXene to form an organic-inorganic hydrogel network with integrative antibacterial and osteogenic properties. Oxidized galactomannan (OxGa) was blended with N-succinyl chitosan (NSC) and varying concentrations of Mxene, owing to its high reactivity and biocompatibility. The results indicated that Mxene-loaded OxGa/NSC scaffolds exhibited biomimetic topography, adequate mechanical features and excellent physicochemical properties with strong antibacterial properties against pathogenic microbes. The cell culture experiments showed dose-dependent cytotoxic behaviour. An optimized MXene content of ≤4 mg/ml revealed no cytotoxicity and augmented the proliferation of osteoblast cells. Similar results were obtained in gene expression analysis where ALP, COL1A1, RUNX2, and SOX2 genes showed up-regulation. In addition, the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay also illustrated augmentation of angiogenesis without any toxicity. The overall results highlight the dual performance of OxGa/NSC-MXene scaffolds to exhibit anti-infection with simultaneous osteogenic properties, which is purely determined by the concentration of MXene. Therefore, regulating MXene concentration can serve as a chemical switch in imparting adequate antibacterial functions with the ability to allow new osseous generation. Our findings on the newly designed Mxene-loaded OxGa/NSC scaffolds can be a promising biomaterial for bone-related infections with a concurrent ability to promote osteogenesis.