Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) has a great potential in bone repair, but unfortunately, the poor mechanical properties limit its further application. In this work, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were incorporated into PHBV porous scaffold fabricated by selective laser sintering technique. It was because ZnO nanoparticles could provide nucleating sites for the orderly stacking of polymer chains, thereby enhancing the crystallinity of PHBV. It was well known that the mechanical properties of PHBV scaffold could be enhanced with the increase of crystallinity. More significantly, the released Zn²⁺ would combine negatively charged cell membranes of bacterial through electrostatic interaction and consequently destructed the protein structure and resulted in the death of bacterial, which was highly desired in reducing the risk of implant infection. Results indicated that the relative crystallinity of scaffold with 3 wt.% ZnO increased remarkably from 38% to 64% compared to pure PHBV scaffold, which effectively enhanced the compression strength and modulus by 56% and 51.5%, respectively. Moreover, the scaffold had a favorable antibacterial activity. Cell culture experiments proved that the scaffold could promote the cell behaviors. The positive results demonstrated the scaffold may serve as a potential replacement in bone repair.

中文翻译：

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加入氧化锌的PHBV支架的结晶性和抗菌性增强

聚（3-羟基丁酸酯-co-3-羟基戊酸酯）（PHBV）在骨修复方面具有巨大潜力，但不幸的是，较差的机械性能限制了其进一步的应用。在这项工作中，将氧化锌（ZnO）纳米粒子掺入通过选择性激光烧结技术制造的PHBV多孔支架中。这是因为ZnO纳米粒子可以为聚合物链的有序堆积提供成核位点，从而增强PHBV的结晶度。众所周知，随着结晶度的增加，PHBV支架的机械性能可以提高。更重要的是，释放的Zn ²⁺会通过静电相互作用将细菌带负电的细胞膜结合在一起，从而破坏蛋白质结构并导致细菌死亡，这是降低植入物感染风险的迫切需要。结果表明，与纯PHBV支架相比，含3 wt。％ZnO的支架的相对结晶度从38％显着提高到64％，分别有效地将抗压强度和模量提高了56％和51.5％。此外，该支架具有良好的抗菌活性。细胞培养实验证明该支架可以促进细胞行为。阳性结果表明该支架可作为骨修复的潜在替代物。