Sousa, A.C.; Biscaia, S.; Alvites, R.; Branquinho, M.; Lopes, B.; Sousa, P.; Valente, J.; Franco, M.; Santos, J.D.; Mendonça, C.; Atayde, L.; Alves, N.; Maurício, A.C. Assessment of 3D-Printed Polycaprolactone, Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles and Diacrylate Poly(ethylene glycol) Scaffolds for Bone Regeneration. Pharmaceutics2022, 14, 2643.
Sousa, A.C.; Biscaia, S.; Alvites, R.; Branquinho, M.; Lopes, B.; Sousa, P.; Valente, J.; Franco, M.; Santos, J.D.; Mendonça, C.; Atayde, L.; Alves, N.; Maurício, A.C. Assessment of 3D-Printed Polycaprolactone, Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles and Diacrylate Poly(ethylene glycol) Scaffolds for Bone Regeneration. Pharmaceutics 2022, 14, 2643.
Sousa, A.C.; Biscaia, S.; Alvites, R.; Branquinho, M.; Lopes, B.; Sousa, P.; Valente, J.; Franco, M.; Santos, J.D.; Mendonça, C.; Atayde, L.; Alves, N.; Maurício, A.C. Assessment of 3D-Printed Polycaprolactone, Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles and Diacrylate Poly(ethylene glycol) Scaffolds for Bone Regeneration. Pharmaceutics2022, 14, 2643.
Sousa, A.C.; Biscaia, S.; Alvites, R.; Branquinho, M.; Lopes, B.; Sousa, P.; Valente, J.; Franco, M.; Santos, J.D.; Mendonça, C.; Atayde, L.; Alves, N.; Maurício, A.C. Assessment of 3D-Printed Polycaprolactone, Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles and Diacrylate Poly(ethylene glycol) Scaffolds for Bone Regeneration. Pharmaceutics 2022, 14, 2643.
Abstract
Notwithstanding the advances achieved in the last decades in the field of synthetic bone substitutes, the development of biodegradable 3D scaffolds with ideal mechanical and biological properties remains an unattained challenge. In this work, a novel approach is explored to produce synthetic bone grafts mimicking the complex bone structure using additive manufacturing. For the first time, scaffolds were produced, using an extrusion technique, composed of a thermoplastic polymer, polycaprolactone (PCL), hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (HANp), and polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA). These scaffolds were further compared with two groups of scaffolds: one composed of PCL and another of PCL and HANp. After production, optimisation and characterisation of these scaffolds, an in vitro evaluation was performed using human dental pulp stem/stromal cells (hDPSCs). Through the findings it was possible to conclude that PEGDA scaffolds were successfully produced presenting networks of interconnected channels, presenting hydrophilic properties (15.15 4.06°), adequate mechanical performance (10.41MPa 0.934), and allowing a cell viability significantly superior to the other groups analysed. To conclude, findings in this study demonstrated that PCL, HANp and PEGDA scaffolds may have promising effects on bone regeneration and might open new insights for 3D tissue substitutes.
Keywords
Additive manufacturing; Biomaterials; Bone; Bone regeneration; Critical Bone Defects; Hydroxy-apatite nanoparticles; Polycaprolactone; Polyethylene glycol diacrylate; Scaffolds
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Biology and Biotechnology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.