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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Microstructure control during cryogenic 3D printing to obtain biomimetic porous and tough cross-scale mineralized collagen bone scaffold
Wei Chang1 ,
Zhiwei Huang1 ,
Wei Huang1 ,
Kai Ren2,3 ,
Jing Ye1 ,
Bing Ye4 ,
Zheng Zhu1 ,
Xianglin Zhang1 ,
Bin Wu1*
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1
State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei,
China
2
State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang,
China
3
Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology of Zhejiang Province, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang,
China
4
Department of Orthopaedics, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei,
China
IJB, 8123 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.8123
Submitted: 22 December 2024 | Accepted: 28 February 2025 | Published: 28 February 2025
© 2025 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
Tissue engineering (TE) is a promising strategy to repair large bone defects by inducing endogenous bone regeneration. The ideal bone TE scaffold should possess high porosity (90%), suitable stiffness (1 MPa), and most importantly, a composition that mimics natural bone, including the same components (mineralized collagen) and cross-macro- and microscale structures. However, existing 3D-printed mineralized collagen bone TE scaffold hardly reproduces the cross-scale structure of natural bone, leading to low porosity (60%) and poor stiffness (100 kPa). To address this challenge, this study applied cryogenic 3D printing, also known as low-temperature field-assisted direct ink writing, to achieve 3D mineralized collagen scaffolds with cross-macro- and microscale structures. The inclusion of numerous micro-pores within the extruded fibers resulted in a porosity of 95%. In addition, through the control of scaffold microstructure and in situ mineralization, Young’s modulus of the cryogenic-printed collagen scaffold can be increased by 240% while maintaining the porosity at 95%, matching the properties of an ideal bone TE scaffold. In summary, this work provides new guidelines for technological innovation and application of cryogenic 3D printing, achieving a biomimetic mineralized collagen bone TE scaffold. In addition, the high porosity of the scaffolds produced by this technology enables these scaffolds to be used in various fields, including impact resistance, wave absorption, thermal insulation, flexible materials, and piezoelectric ceramics, among others.
Graphical abstract
Keywords
Bone-mimetic cross-scale structure
Cryogenic 3D printing
Mineralized collagen
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52305359, 52305558, 82472440), National Medical Products Administration Key Laboratory for Dental Materials (PKUSS20240401), Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 2023AFB141), Key Research and Development Plan of Zhejiang Province (2023C01169), the startup funding, and the Cross-Research Support Program from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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