AccScience Publishing / IJB / Volume 10 / Issue 5 / DOI: 10.36922/ijb.3416
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Biomimetic structural design and performance study of 3D-printed graded minimal surface bone scaffolds with enhanced bioactivity

Tang Liu1 Yuxin Lin1 Lin Sang2 Fei Wang1 Jiawei Hu1 Kun Guo3 Shanglian Ju4* Yiping Zhao1* Xiaohong Shu5
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1 Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning, China
2 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, China
3 Department of Pathology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning, China
4 Department of Orthopedics, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning, China
5 College of Pharmacy, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning, China
IJB 2024, 10(5), 3416 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.3416
Submitted: 12 April 2024 | Accepted: 21 May 2024 | Published: 1 July 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Bone bionics and structural engineering have played a vital role in bone regeneration, with artificial scaffolds generating widespread interest. However, the mechanical properties and bone regeneration potential of biomimetic structures remain unclear. Herein, biodegradable polymer composites based on poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)/poly(lactic acid) (PBAT/PLA) were 3D-printed into lattice structures as tissue engineering scaffolds. For structural design, graded diamond (D) minimal surfaces were proposed and designed to mimic the natural bone structure. The graded topologies were realized by designing gradient thickness either radially from center to edge or vertically from top to bottom. The mechanical performance of these graded samples displayed better load-carrying and energy absorption capacity than the uniform counterparts. No obvious damage was detected in the internal microstructure of the compressed samples using computed tomography. Subsequently, platelet-rich plasma (PRP), containing diverse cytokines, was loaded on the graded scaffolds. The PRP-loaded D-scaffold reported improved in vitro cell proliferation and osteoblast differentiation. Finally, femoral condyle defect repair results indicated that the PRP-loaded D-scaffold effectively promoted early-stage bone regeneration. Overall, this work provides insights into fabricating artificial scaffolds with bioactive factors and biomimetic lattice structures.

Keywords
Biomimetic structural design
Mechanical properties
Computed tomography
Bone scaffolds
Platelet-rich plasma
Funding
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52175216), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (DUT23YG220), the “1+X” program for Clinical Competency Enhancement–Interdisciplinary Innovation Project, the Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University (No. 2022JCXKYB21), and the Dalian Medical University Interdisciplinary Research Cooperation Project Team Funding (JCHZ2023011).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing