AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJB026030021
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Exosome immobilization of 3D-printed polycaprolactone scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Ilwoo Jun1 Ji-Young Ahn2 Gna Ahn2,3 Hye-Jung Kim4 Junhyoung Ahn1 Hyungjun Lim1 Jae Jong Lee1 Su A Park1*
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1 Nano-Convergence Manufacturing Research Division, Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
2 Department of Microbiology, College of Natural Science, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Republic of Korea
3 School of Advanced Biosciences, Glocal Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Changwon National University, Changwon, Republic of Korea
4 Convergence Materials Research and Development Division, Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology, Cheongju, Republic of Korea
Received: 13 January 2026 | Accepted: 6 February 2026 | Published online: 19 February 2026
© 2026 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

Biodegradable polymers are widely used in bone tissue engineering to repair bone defects by providing biocompatible scaffolds with good mechanical support. Among them, three-dimensional (3D)-printed polycaprolactone (PCL) is commonly used due to its biocompatibility and compressive stability. However, its hydrophobicity and lack of osteogenic cues limit cell attachment and osteogenic differentiation. To address these limitations, 3D-printed PCL scaffolds were coated with polydopamine (PDA) to increase hydrophilicity, and milk-derived exosomes (EXOs) were immobilized on the surface to promote cell proliferation and induce osteogenic differentiation, thereby producing PDA–EXO scaffolds. EXOs represent a cell-free alternative for delivering growth factors and microRNA cargo that provide osteogenic cues for bone regeneration. PDA–EXO scaffolds demonstrated greater cell viability and proliferation compared to PCL and PDA scaffolds due to the synergistic effects of the PDA coating and the EXOs. The PDA–EXO scaffolds also led to better osteogenic differentiation compared to the other scaffolds. Taken together, these findings indicate that PDA enhanced surface hydrophilicity and that milk derived EXOs provided osteo inductive signals, thereby synergistically increasing cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation while maintaining the scaffold’s mechanical properties. PDA–EXO functionalization, therefore, represents a practical, cell-free strategy to enhance PCL scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Polycaprolactone
3D-printed
Polydopamine
Milk-derived exosome
Bone tissue engineering
Funding
This study was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF; No. NRF-RS-2024-00411892) and the National Research Council of Science & Technology (CRC22021- 200) funded by the Korean government. It was also supported by the Materials and Components Technology Development Program (RS-2024-00403563 and RS-2024-00431712) of the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) grant funded by the Korea government (MOTIR).
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