Amphoteric ionic hydrogels containing graphene oxide and bioactive glass loaded with BMP-2 significantly promoted the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs.

The treatment of bone nonunion is a tricky challenge, and the development of bone tissue engineering has provided a direction for the treatment of bone nonunion, making the search for suitable tissue-engineered scaffolds particularly important. Three hydrogel scaffolds were constructed, their physical properties and osteogenesis-promoting properties were compared, and the characteristics of the three scaffolds were studied in vivo and in vitro. Z-CS/BG/GO group scaffolds have more uniform pore size and porosity than other groups, with better inter-pore connectivity. The scaffolds were favorable for BMP-2 loading and possessed good mechanical properties while enabling smoother drug release, thus achieving good promotion of proliferation and bone differentiation of BMSCs. So, Z-CS/BG/GO scaffolds are good materials to promote the differentiation of BMSCs and bone formation.