AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/ijb.4995
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Early Access

Polydopamine-modified 3D printed polycaprolactone scaffolds promote bone regeneration

Qian Zhong1 Shuai Huang2 Weihua Huang2, 3, 4, 5 Hengpeng Wu1 Yang Wang2 Zhenyu Wen1 Huinan Yin2 Yixiao Wang1 Weikang Xu3, 5* Qingde Wa1*
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1 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, Guizhou Province 563000. Intersection of Xinlong Avenue and Xinpu Avenue, Honghuagang District, Zunyi, Guizhou 563000, China
2 Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. No. 250, Changgang East Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510260, China
3 Institute of biological and Medical Engineering, Guangdong Acamedy of Sciences, Jianghai Avenue Central, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510316, China
4 The Affiliated Qingyuan Hospital (Qingyuan People’s Hospital), Guangzhou Medical University, No.35, Yinquan North Road, Qingcheng District, Qingyuan Guangdong, 511518, China
5 National Engineering Research Center for Healthcare Devices, Guangdong Key Lab of Medical Electronic Instruments and Polymer Material Products, Guangdong Institute of Medical Instruments, Guangdong Chinese Medicine intelligent diagnosis and treatment engineering technology Research center, No. 1307 Guangzhou Avenue Central, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510500, China
Submitted: 29 September 2024 | Accepted: 25 December 2024 | Published: 26 December 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

Polycaprolactone (PCL) is one of the most widely used 3D printing materials with good biocompatibility and mechanical properties, but its hydrophobic properties are detrimental to cell adhesion and proliferation. Studies have shown that polydopamine (PDA) promotes the proliferation and induces osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on the polymer surface. However, the effect of different PDA coating thicknesses on the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs has rarely been reported. In this paper, PCL scaffolds were prepared using 3D printing technology, and PCL scaffolds with PDA surface coating (PDA-PCL-0, PDA-PCL-3, PDA-PCL-6, PDA-PCL-24) were obtained after immersing them in aqueous dopamine solution for fixed time points by shaking bed shaking (0h, 3h, 6h, 24h). The scaffolds of each group were subjected to characterization analysis and physicochemical performance tests to evaluate the differences in the scaffolds' BMSCs-promoting proliferation, adhesion and osteogenic properties. The results showed that the PDA-PCL-6 possessed immunomodulatory properties and significantly promoted the proliferation and adhesion of BMSCs as well as osteogenic differentiation compared with other groups. In the validation experiments in vivo, based on the results of mCT, H&E staining, Masson staining and immunohistochemical staining (BMP-2 and COL-1), the coated scaffolds (PDA-PCL-6) showed significant bone regeneration-promoting properties, as well as good histocompatibility and haemocompatibility, compared with the scaffolds without PDA coating at 1, 2, and 3 months after the operation. In conclusion, our results indicate that the PDA coating obtained by immersion for 6 hours significantly enhances the biocompatibility and osteoinduction of PCL, providing a promising strategy for bone defect repair.

Keywords
3D printing
Polycaprolactone
polydopamine
Bone regeneration
Funding
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32000964, 82160577), the Guangdong Province Science and Technology Plan Project (2024A1515012265, 2020B1111560001 and 2022A1515140193), the Program for Science and Technology Project of Guizhou Province, Qiankehe Platform Talents ([2021] 5613), the Key Program for Science and Technology Project of Guizhou Province (ZK [2021] 007), the GDAS' Project of Science and Technology Development (2022GDASZH-2022020402-01, 2022GDASZH-2022010110, 2020GDASZH-2022030604-01 and 2023GDASZH-2023010102).
Conflict of interest
We declare that we have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work, there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in, or the review of, the manuscript entitled.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing