AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/ijb.5175
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Early Access

Optimizing printability and mechanical properties of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB) biocomposite blends and their biological response to Saos-2 cells

Štěpán Krobot1* Přemysl Menčík1 Kateřina Chaloupková1 Ján Bočkaj2 Sára Vach Agócsová2 Michala Klusáček Rampichová3 Věra Hedvičáková3 Pavol Alexy2 Radek Přikryl1 Veronika Melčová1,2*
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1 Institute of Material Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology, Purkyňova 464/118, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
2 Institute of Natural and Synthetic Polymers, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Radlinského 9, 812 37 Bratislava, Slovakia
3 Institute of Experimental Medicine, Czech Academy of Sciences, Vídeňská 1083, 142 20 Prague 4, Czech Republic
Submitted: 16 October 2024 | Accepted: 3 December 2024 | Published: 18 December 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printing for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine-Series 2)
© 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 tissue engineering requires scaffolds with three-dimensional structures that facilitate vascularization and new tissue growth. 3D printing, especially through fused deposition modeling (FDM), has emerged as an effective method for creating complex structures with high reproducibility. Early research in this area demonstrated the potential of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) scaffolds for bone regeneration. Recently, polylactide (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) have garnered attention for their biocompatibility and ability to support cell proliferation. Among PHAs, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB) shows promise due to its intrinsic biocompatibility and resorbability, making it a candidate for FDM-based scaffold fabrication. In the presented study, we aim to develop and optimize a biocompatible P3HB-based composite material for bone tissue engineering, incorporating PLA, hydroxyapatite (HA), and the plasticizer Syncroflex3114 (SN) to enhance mechanical properties and printability. This composite was processed into filaments for 3D printing and characterized through thermal, mechanical, and biological evaluations. Using a design of experiment (DoE) approach, we investigated factors such as temperature performance, warping, degradation, and strength to determine the optimal composition for use in tissue engineering. Four optimal mixture compositions fulfilling the optimization criteria of having the most suitable properties for bone tissue engineering, namely the best printability and maximum mechanical properties,  were obtained. The mixtures were optimized specifically for minimum warping coefficient (0.5); maximum flexural strength (66.9 MPa); maximum compression modulus (2.4 GPa); and maximum compression modulus (2.3 GPa) with a warping coefficient of no more than one at the same time. In conclusion, the study shows a new possible way to effectively develop and test 3D printed P3HB-based scaffolds with specifically optimized material properties.

Keywords
Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)
Polylactide
3D printing
FDM
Design of Experiment
Scaffold
Printability
Funding
Authors acknowledge the support from projects “New circular biotechnologies and biomedical applications” No. CZ.01.1.02/0.0/0.0/20_321/0024676; “Excellence in regenerative medicine” No. CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004562 and from Operational Program Integrated Infrastructure for the project “Center for Medical Bioadditive Research and Production (CEMBAM), code ITMS2014 +: 313011V358, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund”.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing