Constructing multi-component organic/inorganic composite bacterial cellulose-gelatin/hydroxyapatite double-network scaffold platform for stem cell-mediated bone tissue engineering

•Multi-component organic/inorganic composite double-network BC-GEL/HAp platform was synthesized and investigated for the first time.•BC-GEL/HAp composite demonstrated higher mechanical strength than conventional BC/GEL double-network composite as well as BC/HAp composite.•The rationale behind high mechanical strength of the BC-GEL/HAp composite was discussed in detail.•The rBMSCs cultured on the BC-GEL/HAp composite showed positive adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation potential.

Bacterial cellulose/hydroxyapatite (BC/HAp) composite had good bioaffinity but its poor mechanical strength limited its widespread applications in bone tissue engineering (BTE). Bacterial cellulose/gelatin (BC/GEL) double-network (DN) composite had excellent mechanical properties but was seldom used in biomedical fields. In this regard, a multi-component organic/inorganic composite BC-GEL/HAp DN composite was synthesized, which combined the advantages of BC/HAp and BC/GEL. Compared with BC/GEL, the BC-GEL/HAp exhibited rougher surface topography and higher thermal stability. Compression and tensile testing indicated that the mechanical strength of the BC-GEL/HAp was greatly reinforced compared with BC/HAp and was even higher than that of BC/GEL. In vitro cell culture demonstrated that the rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs) cultured on the BC-GEL/HAp showed better adhesion and higher proliferation and differentiation potential than the cells cultured on BC/GEL. We hope the BC-GEL/HAp composite could be used as ideal bone scaffold platform or biomedical membrane in the future.