Antibacterial effectiveness meets improved mechanical properties: Manuka honey/gellan gum composite hydrogels for cartilage repair

Abstract

Biomaterials for cartilage repair are still far from clinical requirements, even if several studies recently focused on this topic. In this respect, Nature-derived hydrogels are a promising class of scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering, mimicking the native cellular microenvironment. However, they frequently lack mechanical features required for cartilage applications and are commonly subjected to infection threat. This work describes the innovative use of Manuka honey as molecular spacer for preparing gellan gum-based composites with intrinsic antibacterial properties and superior compressive Young's modulus in respect of several Nature-derived gels based on chitosan, hyaluronic acid or alginate. The addition of Manuka honey made hydrogels able to inhibit the proliferation of S. aureus and S. epidermidis clinical isolates. Furthermore, no cytotoxic effects were detected on human mesenchymal stem cells seeded on the hydrogels. Moreover, chondrogenesis experiments showed a consistent expression of collagen II and high synthesis of GAGs and proteoglycans, thus indicating the formation of cartilage matrix. Overall, these data suggest that the developed smart composites have a great potential as tools for cartilage tissue engineering.

Data on Manuka Honey/Gellan Gum composite hydrogels for cartilage repair

“…As highlighted in Fig. 3 and Table 1 , all the tested polymers swelled very rapidly, because of the presence of large pores typical of freeze-dried systems [1] . In particular, GG MH HNT Mg hydrogels displayed a significantly higher swelling in respect to the other systems, reaching the swelling equilibrium after 15days [1] .…”

“…The peaks at 3693 and 3622 cm −1 could be associated to the stretching of the inner hydroxyl groups predominantly in a free state ( Fig. 1 B) [1] .

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“… Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (adipose-derived, ATCC-PCS-500-011) were cultured at the Department of Health Sciences, University of Piemonte Orientale “UPO”, Novara (Italy). Data accessibility Data are available in this article Related research article “Antibacterial effectiveness meets improved mechanical properties: Manuka Honey/Gellan Gum composite hydrogels for cartilage repair”, by Bonifacio et al [1] …”

Surface Functionalization of Bioactive Glasses with Polyphenols from Padina pavonica Algae and In Situ Reduction of Silver Ions: Physico-Chemical Characterization and Biological Response

“…Sterile specimens were gently paced into a 12 multi-well plate using sterile tweezers avoiding any surface damage. Each specimen was submerged with 1 mL of the broth bacteria culture prepared as described in Section 2.5.1.; the plate was incubated for 90 minutes in agitation (120 rpm) at 37 • C to allow the separation between adherent biofilm cells and non-adherent floating planktonic cells (separation phase) [33,34]. Afterwards, supernatants containing planktonic cells were removed and replaced with 1 mL fresh media to cultivated surface-adhered biofilm cells (growth phase).…”

“…Afterwards, supernatants containing planktonic cells were removed and replaced with 1 mL fresh media to cultivated surface-adhered biofilm cells (growth phase). Biofilms were grown at 37 • C for 1 to 3 days prior to evaluations [33,34].…”