Sequentially releasing self-healing hydrogel fabricated with TGFβ3-microspheres and bFGF to facilitate rat alveolar bone defect repair

Resorption and loss of alveolar bone leads to oral dysfunction and loss of natural or implant teeth. Biomimetic delivery of growth factors based on stem cell recruitment and osteogenic differentiation, as the key steps in natural alveolar bone regenerative process, has been an area of intense research in recent years. A mesoporous self-healing hydrogel (DFH) with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) entrapment and transforming growth factor β3 (TGFβ3) - loaded chitosan microspheres (CMs) was developed. The formulation was optimized by multiple tests of self-healing, in-bottle inversion, SEM, rheological, swelling rate and