Abstract
Bone defects caused by osteoporosis, bone malignant tumors, and trauma are very common, but there are many limiting factors in the clinical treatment of them. Bone tissue engineering is the most promising treatment and is considered to be the main strategy for bone defect repair. We prepared polydopamine-coated poly-(lactic-co-glycolic acid)/β-tricalcium phosphate composite scaffolds via 3D printing, and a series of characterization and biocompatibility tests were carried out. The results show that the mechanical properties and pore-related parameters of the composite scaffolds are not affected by the coatings, and the hydrophilicities of the surface are obviously improved. Scanning electron microscopy and micro-computed tomography display the nanoscale microporous structure of the bio-materials. Biological tests demonstrate that this modified surface can promote cell adhesion and proliferation and improve osteogenesis through the increase of polydopamine (PDA) concentrations. Mouse cranial defect experiments are conducted to further verify the conclusion that scaffolds with a higher content of PDA coatings have a better effect on the formation of new bones. In the study, the objective of repairing critical-sized defects is achieved by simply adding PDA as coatings to obtain positive results, which can suggest that this modification method with PDA has great potential.
Highlights
Owing to the complexity of three-dimensional craniofacial defects, the repair of such bone defects is challenging [1]
The 3-dimensional (3D) micro-computed tomography (CT) images indicate a ‘honeycomb-like’ performance, which is beneficial for the in-growth of bone tissues [17], because the printed filaments are observed in a network structure, with a strong architectural integrity
The results confirm that the properties of the scaffolds are suitable to be used as bone tissue engineering scaffolds
Summary
Owing to the complexity of three-dimensional craniofacial defects, the repair of such bone defects is challenging [1]. The drawback of these methods lies in the difficulty associated with handling the biophysical properties, such as the pore size, inter-well connectivity, and porosity of the 3D scaffold. 3D-printed substitute, makes in-body implantation and precise repair challenging [3,4,5]. With the improvement of the current 3D printing technology, the resolution of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a 3D model of the defect area can be generated using the mirroring technique. The ability to pre-set the data input can allow the pore morphology, pore size, pore connectivity, and porosity of the 3D-printed scaffold to be controlled, which is converted into
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