Tannic Acid-Loaded MgO and ZnO-Doped Antibacterial Hydroxyapatite for Orthopedic and Dental Applications

Hydroxyapatite (HA)-based materials are utilized as a bioactive ceramic for musculoskeletal reconstruction, owing to their chemical similarities to bone. However, they do not have any inherent antibacterial properties. Hence, post-surgical bacterial infection on HA scaffolds may cause osteomyelitis that needs to be rectified with costlier and more painful revision surgery. Our research aims to dope HA with transition metal oxides, such as ZnO and MgO, followed by loading tannic acid (TA) as an alternate antibacterial agent for various orthopedic and dental applications. The phase and microstructural investigation studies show no adverse effect as a result of doping. The combined effects of dopants and TA lead to ~ 98% antibacterial efficacy against S. aureus after 24 h of sample–bacterial interactions. The selected compositions do not show any adverse effects on the NIH3T3 cell line. In summary, our work proposes an alternate strategy to fabricate an antibacterial scaffold with TA-loaded ZnO and MgO-doped HA for various orthopedic and dental applications.