Preparation of Drug-Loaded Chitosan/Hydroxyapatite Composite Material and Its Numerical Simulation in Nasal Defect Repair

Abstract

With the continuous innovation and development of materials science and tissue engineering technology, biomaterials are gradually being used to replace autologous bone and allogeneic bone grafts in clinical practice for the treatment and repair of bone defects. In this paper, L-arginine-modified chitosan/hydroxyapatite composites were prepared by solution blending of L-arginine-modified chitosan and hydroxyapatite. A hormone drug prednisone acetate was loaded into the composites by supercritical impregnation technique. The results of in vitro release showed that under the loading condition of 12 MPa and 318 K, the cumulative release amount of the drug was 74.6% in 72 h, which had an excellent sustained release effect. In addition, a numerical model of the nasal bone was developed and numerical calculations were performed to analyze and compare the stresses of the healthy nasal bone and the nasal bone repaired with CA/HA composite when subjected to a force of 100 N, in different directions. The total deformation difference at the material was 0.002-0.004 mm/mm, and the stress difference was 0.004–1.373 MPa for the nasal bone in both states, with the sagittal plane under 0–90 degrees of force. The above results indicate that the CA/HA composite has good biological and mechanical properties and can be used to repair nasal bone defects. This material and numerical calculation method can also be applied to other related bone tissue engineering and biomedical materials, which have broad application prospects.