Production, Characterisation, and In Vitro Evaluation of 3D Printed PCL/HANp/PEGDA Scaffold for Bone Regeneration †
by
, , , , , , , and
Ana Catarina Sousa
1,2
,
Sara Biscaia
3
,
Rui Alvites
1,2
,
Mariana Branquinho
1,2,
Bruna Lopes
1,2
,
Patrícia Sousa
1,2,
Joana Valente
3,
Margarida Franco
3,
José Domingos Santos
4,5,
Luís Atayde
1,2,
Nuno Alves
3,‡ and
Ana Colette Maurício
1,2,*,‡ 1
Veterinary Clinics Department, Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute (ICBAS), 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
2
Animal Science Studies Centre (CECA), Agroenvironment, Technologies and Sciences Institute (ICETA), University of Porto, 4050-453 Porto, Portugal
3
Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development (CDRSP), Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, 2430-028 Marinha Grande, Portugal
4
Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto (FEUP), 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
5
REQUIMTE/LAQV, Departamento de Engenharia Metalúrgica e Materiais, Faculdade de Engenharia, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Presented at the Materiais 2022, Marinha Grande, Portugal, 10–13 April 2022.
‡
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Mater. Proc. 2022, 8(1), 79; https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008079
Published: 7 June 2022
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of MATERIAIS 2022)
Reconstruction of bone defects with mechanical integration with the original surrounding bone tissues is essential for a patient’s rehabilitation. In this research, a novel approach is explored to produce synthetic bone grafts mimicking the complex bone structure using additive manufacturing, comprising the construction of 3D scaffolds. For this purpose, three types of scaffolds were produced and tested: one using a thermoplastic polymer, polycaprolactone (PCL), another using a combination of PCL and hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (HANPs), and the third using a combination of the two materials and polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA). After production, optimisation, and characterisation of the scaffolds, an in vitro evaluation was performed with human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs).
According to the results, the scaffolds were produced successfully, presenting interconnected channel networks and good geometric accuracy. Regarding the mechanical behaviour, the results demonstrate that the addition of HANPs seems to have improved the compressive rigidity of the scaffolds. After analysis of the in vitro tests, it was verified that the PCL/HANp/PEGDA-based scaffolds presented superior cell proliferation when compared to the other groups.
This study demonstrates that PCL/HANp/PEGDA scaffolds associated with hDPSCs are a very promising therapeutic system in critical fracture treatment, to accelerate and improve bone regeneration. The research of this system’s performance in critical bone defects is an important step to its progression to clinical applications.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, A.C.S., L.A., N.A. and A.C.M.; methodology, A.C.S., R.A., M.B., S.B., B.L., J.V., M.F. and P.S.; software, R.A. and M.B.; validation A.C.S., L.A., S.B., N.A. and A.C.M.; formal analysis, A.C.S., R.A., M.B., S.B., B.L., J.V., M.F. and P.S.; investigation, A.C.S., R.A., M.B., S.B., B.L., J.V., M.F., N.A., P.S. and A.C.M.; resources, S.B., N.A., L.A. and A.C.M.; data curation, A.C.S., R.A., M.B., S.B., N.A. and A.C.M.; writing—original draft preparation, A.C.S., R.A., M.B., S.B., N.A. and A.C.M.; writing—review and editing, A.C.S., R.A., M.B., S.B., N.A., J.D.S. and A.C.M.; visualization, A.C.S., R.A., M.B., S.B., B.L., J.V., and P.S.; supervision, A.C.M., N.A., and L.A.; project administration, N.A. and A.C.M.; funding acquisition, N.A. and A.C.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by Projects PEst-OE/AGR/UI0211/2011 and LA/P/0059/2020 funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and COMPETE 2020, from ANI–Projetos ID&T Empresas em Copromoção, by the project “Print-on-Organs–Engineering bioinks and processes for direct printing on organs” with the reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-033877, by the project “Bone2Move-Development of “in vivo” experimental techniques and modelling methodologies for the evaluation of 4D scaffolds for bone defect in sheep model: an integrative research approach” with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031146 and by the PhD scholarships Mariana Vieira Branquinho (SFRH/BD/146172/2019), Ana Catarina Sousa (SFRH/BD/146689/2019), and Bruna Lopes (2021.05265.BD). The author Rui D. Alvites acknowledges Centro de Estudos de Ciência Animal (CECA), Instituto de Ciências, Tecnologias e Agroambiente (ICETA), Porto University (UP), and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) for the funding and availability of all technical, structural and human resources necessary for the development of this work. The work was supported through the project UIDB/00211/2020 funded by FCT/MCTES through national funds.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on request.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Sousa, A.C.; Biscaia, S.; Alvites, R.; Branquinho, M.; Lopes, B.; Sousa, P.; Valente, J.; Franco, M.; Santos, J.D.; Atayde, L.; et al. Production, Characterisation, and In Vitro Evaluation of 3D Printed PCL/HANp/PEGDA Scaffold for Bone Regeneration . Mater. Proc. 2022, 8, 79. https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008079
AMA Style
Sousa AC, Biscaia S, Alvites R, Branquinho M, Lopes B, Sousa P, Valente J, Franco M, Santos JD, Atayde L, et al. Production, Characterisation, and In Vitro Evaluation of 3D Printed PCL/HANp/PEGDA Scaffold for Bone Regeneration . Materials Proceedings. 2022; 8(1):79. https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008079
Chicago/Turabian StyleSousa, Ana Catarina, Sara Biscaia, Rui Alvites, Mariana Branquinho, Bruna Lopes, Patrícia Sousa, Joana Valente, Margarida Franco, José Domingos Santos, Luís Atayde, and et al. 2022. "Production, Characterisation, and In Vitro Evaluation of 3D Printed PCL/HANp/PEGDA Scaffold for Bone Regeneration " Materials Proceedings 8, no. 1: 79. https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008079
