https://doi.org/10.1177/0883911520966692 Journal of Bioactive and Compatible Polymers 1–15 © The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0883911520966692 journals.sagepub.com/home/jbc JOURNAL OF Bioactive and Compatible Polymers Synthesis and characterization of collagen/calcium phosphate scaffolds incorporating antibacterial agent for bone tissue engineering application Raziyeh Najafloo 1 , Nafiseh Baheiraei 2 and Rana Imani 3 Abstract In the present study, we developed a novel niosomal nanocarrier embedded into a collagen/β- tricalcium phosphate (Col/β-TCP) scaffold for the local delivery of thymol as a natural anti- bacterial reagent. The niosomal Col/β-TCP (N-Col/β-TCP) scaffolds with different weight ratios of β-TCP to Col were prepared by freeze-drying. The antimicrobial activities of the prepared samples against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus were assessed by agar diffusion method. The release profile of niosomal thymol from the optimized composite scaffolds showed a sustained profile where 66% of the loaded thymol was released over 30 days. The compressive modulus of niosome added scaffolds with an equal ratio of β-TCP and Col was calculated as 972±1.3KPa. This scaffold showed significantly higher values of cell viability (as evaluated by an MTT assay) against L929 fibroblasts than a scaffold without niosomal thymol after 24 and 72 h. Among synthesized samples, Col/β-TCP 1 showed the greatest effectiveness of anti- bacterial activity toward Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria with higher activity against 1 Department of bio-informatics, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran 2 Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences Division, Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medical Sciences,Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran 3 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran polytechnic), Tehran, Iran Corresponding authors: Nafiseh Baheiraei, Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences Division, Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medical Sciences,Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-111, Iran. Email: n.baheiraei@modares.ac.ir Rana Imani, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran polytechnic), Tehran 1591634-311, Iran. Email: r.imani@aut.ac.ir 966692JBC 0 0 10.1177/0883911520966692Journal of Bioactive and Compatible PolymersNajafloo et al. research-article 2020 Original Article