1. Surface energy and stiffness discrete gradients in additive manufactured scaffolds for osteochondral regeneration
- Author
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Andrea Di Luca, Ivan Lorenzo-Moldero, Giuseppe Criscenti, Lorenzo Moroni, Michel Klein-Gunnewiek, Clemens van Blitterswijk, Carlos Mota, Julius Vancso, Alessia Longoni, RS: MERLN - Complex Tissue Regeneration (CTR), CTR, Materials Science and Technology of Polymers, and Faculty of Science and Technology
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,gradients ,Scaffold ,Bone Regeneration ,Materials science ,Surface Properties ,3D scaffolds ,Biomedical Engineering ,Bioengineering ,02 engineering and technology ,Biochemistry ,Regenerative medicine ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Osteogenesis ,stem cells ,Elastic Modulus ,Tensile Strength ,Materials Testing ,Humans ,Cells, Cultured ,Tissue Scaffolds ,Regeneration (biology) ,Biomaterial ,Cell Differentiation ,Mesenchymal Stem Cells ,Equipment Design ,General Medicine ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Surface energy ,Equipment Failure Analysis ,030104 developmental biology ,IR-101772 ,chemistry ,Bone Substitutes ,Printing, Three-Dimensional ,Polycaprolactone ,METIS-318089 ,Mesenchymal stem cell differentiation ,0210 nano-technology ,additive manufacturing ,Biotechnology ,Biofabrication ,Biomedical engineering ,biomaterials - Abstract
Swift progress in biofabrication technologies has enabled unprecedented advances in the application of developmental biology design criteria in three-dimensional scaffolds for regenerative medicine. Considering that tissues and organs in the human body develop following specific physico-chemical gradients, in this study, we hypothesized that additive manufacturing (AM) technologies would significantly aid in the construction of 3D scaffolds encompassing such gradients. Specifically, we considered surface energy and stiffness gradients and analyzed their effect on adult bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cell differentiation into skeletal lineages. Discrete step-wise macroscopic gradients were obtained by sequentially depositing different biodegradable biomaterials in the AM process, namely poly(lactic acid) (PLA), polycaprolactone (PCL), and poly(ethylene oxide terephthalate)/poly(butylene terephthalate) (PEOT/PBT) copolymers. At the bulk level, PEOT/PBT homogeneous scaffolds supported a higher alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity compared to PCL, PLA, and gradient scaffolds, respectively. All homogeneous biomaterial scaffolds supported also a significantly higher amount of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) production compared to discrete gradient scaffolds. Interestingly, the analysis of the different material compartments revealed a specific contribution of PCL, PLA, and PEOT/PBT to surface energy gradients. Whereas PEOT/PBT regions were associated to significantly higher ALP activity, PLA regions correlated with significantly higher GAG production. These results show that cell activity could be influenced by the specific spatial distribution of different biomaterial chemistries in a 3D scaffold and that engineering surface energy discrete gradients could be considered as an appealing criterion to design scaffolds for osteochondral regeneration.
- Published
- 2016