Taxifolin-loaded cellulose/l-arginine-chitosan hydrogel promoting bone defect repair through osteogenesis and angiogenesis

Bone defects have always been a difficult problem in clinical practice. Taxifolin (TAX) is beneficial to bone regeneration. In order to obtain more attractive biomaterials, we extracted cellulose (LC) from larch sawdust and prepared a TAX-loaded hydrogel (DCT) together with L-arginine chitosan (CA). The hydrogel had a uniform porous structure and good mechanical properties. After drug loading, the adhesion, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties of the hydrogel were improved. In addition, DCT has good biocompatibility. In vitro cell experiment results showed that DCT can promote cell proliferation and migration, and DCT has a certain ability to promote the osteogenic activity and enhance the expression of osteoblastic factors (OCN and Osx) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in MC3T3-E1 cells. In addition, in vivo studies showed that the DCT treatment could promote bone regeneration by increasing the levels of osteogenic markers (OPN, OCN, and Osx) and VEGF. Transcriptome analysis showed that DCT intervention affected the hematopoiesis function in bone tissue. Meanwhile, KEGG analysis showed that DCT promoted bone regeneration mainly by activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, which was verified by a western blot. Therefore, DCT is a good material for bone repair.