Research on a novel chitosan microsphere/scaffold system by double cross-linkers

RhBMP-2 has shown great promise for the reconstruction of teeth segmental bone defects due to its osteoinductive properties. But the application of rhBMP-2 is limited by its weak drug controled release. It is usually loaded in a Chitosan Microspheres (CMs) delivery system with excess single cross-linker and then removed before practice. In this study, cross-linkers were replaced with RhBMP-2 which contains vanillin and vitriolic acid, and thus CMs were developed. The materials were studied by SEM, FTIR and drug release experiments. It showed an ideal releasing profile and excellent osteoconductive and osteoinductive performance in the delivery system. Therefore, designing biomaterials with a controllable delivery system composite and releasing profile of rhBMP-2 are critical for applications of bone regeneration and tissue engineering.