Chitosan/hyaluronic acid-based fully degradable in situ hydrogel for promoting human dental pulp stem cells self-aggregation with enhanced antibacterial properties

Abstract

Injectable hydrogels have recently attracted an enormous amount of attraction in dentistry due to their great flexibility, adaptability, regulated flowability, and excellent biocompatibility. Nevertheless, there are still few studies on easily injectable in situ-forming hydrogels that have the ability to generate useful three-dimensional (3D) tissue aggregates. In this work, a fully biodegradable chitosan (CS) and hyaluronic acid (HA) based hydrogel is developed and assessed for applications in regenerative treatment and biological engineering with intrinsic antibacterial activity. The chitosan derivative carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCTS) and hyaluronic acid derivative oxidized hyaluronic acid (oHA) were utilized in this study. The best CMCTS/oHA hydrogel formulation was determined by physicochemical investigation, and the superb injectability of the hydrogel allowed for simpler in situ administration. 0.1% silver sulfadiazine (AgSD) was determined to be the ideal concentration by in vitro cytotoxicity tests, which demonstrated antibacterial effectiveness against dental bacteria while promoting the proliferation of cells. The complete hydrogel decomposition and high biocompatibility without any negative tissue responses were identified through in vivo experiments. The prospective benefits of the hydrogel for upcoming 3D tissue engineering applications are highlighted by its capacity to promote tissue regeneration and generate 3D cell condensations. As a result, the injectable CMCTS/oHA/AgSD hydrogel produced in this study is promising for the applications in numerous bioengineering domains, such as 3D tissue engineering and antibacterial systems, suggesting that it has potential applications in clinical treatment in the future.