Antibacterial and antioxidant activity of cinnamon essential oil-laden 45S5 bioactive glass/soy protein composite scaffolds for the treatment of bone infections and oxidative stress

This study aimed to fabricate cinnamon essential oil (CO)-laden 45S5 bioactive glass (BG)/soy protein (SP) scaffolds exhibiting antioxidant and antibacterial activity. In this regard, 45S5 BG-based scaffolds were produced by the foam replica method, and subsequently the scaffolds were coated with various concentrations of CO (2.5, 5 and 7 (v/v) %) incorporated SP solution. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that the CO-laden SP effectively attached to the 45S5 BG scaffold struts. The presence of 45S5 BG, SP and CO was confirmed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Compressive strength results indicated that SP based coatings improved the scaffolds' mechanical properties compared to uncoated BG scaffolds. The loading efficiency and releasing behaviour of the different CO concentrations were tested by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The results showed that CO incorporated scaffolds have controlled releasing behaviour over seven days. Furthermore, the coating on the scaffold surfaces slightly retarded, but it did not inhibit, the in vitro bioactivity of the scaffolds. Moreover, the antioxidant and antibacterial activity of CO was studied. The free radical scavenging activity measured by DPPH was 5 ± 1, 41 ± 3, 44 ± 1 and 43 ± 1 % for BGSP, CO2.5, CO5 and CO7, respectively. The antioxidant activity was thus enhanced by incorporating CO. Agar diffusion and colony counting results indicated that the incorporation of CO increased the antibacterial activity of scaffolds against S. aureus and E. coli. In addition, cytotoxicity of the scaffolds was investigated using MG-63 osteoblast-like cells. The results showed that the BG-SP scaffold was non-toxic under the investigated conditions, whereas dose-dependent toxicity was observed in CO-laden scaffolds. Considered together, the developed phytotherapeutic agent laden 45S5 BG-based scaffolds are promising for bone tissue engineering exhibiting capability to combat bone infections and to protect against oxidative stress damage.