Magnesium phosphate materials have aroused interest of researchers in recent years and are promising for biomedical applications due to their good biocompatibility and biodegradability. In this work, we report the microwave-hydrothermal rapid synthesis of magnesium phosphate pentahydrate nanosheets (MPHSs) using biocompatible creatine phosphate as an organic phosphorus source. This method is facile, rapid, surfactant-free and environmentally friendly. The as-prepared MPHSs have an obvious pH-dependent dissolution performance which can be used as an ideal pH-responsive nanocarrier for drug and gene delivery. Moreover, the MPHSs have a good cytocompatibility and a high ability to promote osteoblast MC-3T3 adhesion and spreading, as well as a relatively high protein adsorption ability using hemoglobin (Hb) as a model protein. Thus, the MPHSs are promising for the applications in biomedical fields such as protein adsorption and bone regeneration. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.