Bone
defects are a common and challenging orthopedic problem with
poor self-healing ability and long treatment cycles. The difficult-to-heal
bone defects cause a significant burden of medical expenses on patients.
Currently, biomaterials with mechanical stability, long-lasting action,
and osteogenic activity are considered as a suitable way to effectively
heal bone defects. Here, an injectable double network (DN) hydrogel
prepared using physical and chemical cross-linking methods is designed.
The first rigid network is constructed using methylpropenylated hyaluronic
acid (HAMA), while the addition of chitosan oligosaccharide (COS)
forms a second flexible network by physical cross-linking. The mesoporous
silica nanoparticles (MSN) loaded with bone morphogenetic protein-4
(BMP-4) were embedded into DN hydrogel, which not only enhanced the
mechanical stability of the hydrogel, but also slowly released BMP-4
to achieve long-term skull repair. The designed composite hydrogel
showed an excellent compression property and deformation resistance. In vitro studies confirmed that the HAMA/COS/MSN@BMP-4 hydrogel
had good biocompatibility and showed great potential in supporting
proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of mouse embryo osteoblast
precursor (MC3T3-E1) cells. Furthermore, in vivo studies
confirmed that the DN hydrogel successfully filled and closed irregular
skull defect wounds, effectively promoted bone regeneration, and significantly
promoted bone repair compared with the control group. In addition,
HAMA/COS/MSN@BMP-4 hydrogel precursor solution can quickly form hydrogel in situ at the wound by ultraviolet light, which can be
applied to the closure and repair of wounds of different shapes, which
provides the new way for the treatment of bone defects.