Calcium carbonate hydrogel construct with cynnamaldehyde incorporated to control inflammation during surgical procedure.

The incorporation of CaCO3 hydrogel has been proven to enhance the bone biological activity of Plaster of Paris (POP) and to decrease its degradability. However, the installation of this bone substitute in a bone defect will still be associated with an inflammatory response. In this study, the influence of cinnamaldehyde as anti-inflammatory agent, was investigated. In addition, it is known that aldehyde chains of cinnamaldehyde may also act as crosslinking agent and function as a plastisizer to the CaCO3 hydrogel construct. Therefore, different concentrations of cinnamaldehyde were added to CaCO3 hydrogel and the effect on the diametral tensile strength, age swelling, gel fractination, cinnamaldehyde release, antimicrobial effect, and cell cytotoxycity were investigated. The incorporation of cinnamaldehyde was found to decrease the age swelling and degradation rate of CaCO3 hydrogel and to have no toxic effect to human gingival fibroblast cells. Moreover, the incorporation of cinnamaldehyde essential oil into the CaCO3 hydrogel was beneficial and acted as an antiinflammatory agent. Further research in vivo is warranted to determine the final favorable effect of cinnamaldehyde incorporated CaCO3 hydrogel in POP to provide a bone substitute. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 768-774, 2016.