Page 101 - Development of Functional Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering Using 3D-Bioprinting of Cells and Biomaterials - Yasaman Zamani
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osteoblasts as indicated by the higher ALP activity on the 3D-printed scaffolds compared with the porous scaffolds. Higher ALP activity on the 3D-printed scaffolds can be attributed to more effective cell-cell contacts on these scaffolds compared with cell-cell contacts on the porous scaffolds. It has been shown that cell-cell contacts are essential for inducing osteogenic differentiation. Upon cell-cell contact, cells can exchange bioactive molecules via gap junctions to facilitate differentiation [39,40]. Therefore, suitable surface roughness, homogeneous distribution of β-TCP particles on the surface, and effective cell-cell contact on the surface of the 3D-printed scaffolds resulted in higher osteogenic differentiation by pre-osteoblasts in these scaffolds compared with the porous scaffolds fabricated by solvent casting-porogen leaching.
These findings have provided further knowledge on the response of pre-osteoblasts to ordered 3D-printed or random porous scaffolds fabricated from the same PLGA/β-TCP material, which may have important implications for fine-tuning scaffold designs for bone tissue engineering.
CONCLUSION
Proliferation, matrix deposition, and differentiation of MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts in porous or 3D- printed PLGA/β-TCP scaffolds were investigated in the present study. Our data demonstrate that porous and 3D-printed scaffolds equally support the pre-osteoblasts proliferation and matrix deposition while only the 3D-printed scaffolds show enhanced mechanical properties and osteogenic differentiation potential in vitro. This suggests that the 3D-printed PLGA/β-TCP scaffolds may be more promising for in vivo bone formation than the porous PLGA/β-TCP scaffolds.
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Mr. Arie Werner (Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam, Department of Dental Material Sciences) for help in scanning electron microscopy. This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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