Page 332 - IJB-10-1

International

Journal of Bioprinting

RESEARCH ARTICLE
The effect of 3D-printed bone tissue scaffolds

geometrical designs on bacterial biofilm
formation

Abdulsalam A. Al-Tamimi *, and Esraa Aldawood 2
1
1 Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia
2 Department of Clinical Laboratories Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud
University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Bone fractures are recognized as a global health problem. A common strategy to
tackle this issue is to employ a tissue engineering scaffold to accelerate tissue
healing. However, one of the main challenges that can result in delaying the recovery
is the risk of bacterial infections. This study aims to assess the impact of the geometry
and the porosity of tissue scaffolds on the Staphylococcus aureus biofilm formation.
Three triply periodic minimal surface designs of Schwarz primitive (SP), gyroid (GY),
and Schwarz diamond (SD) and re-entrant auxetic (RE) design were examined and
compared to a reference design (RD) considering two different porosity levels of 75%
and 45%. The amount of biofilm was quantified using crystal violet assay and was
visualized using scanning electron microscopy. The SP scaffold, with low porosity,
exhibited a significantly less amount of bacterial biofilm formation and was regarded
as having the best design among the others, while the SD with low porosity showed
*Corresponding author: the greatest amount of biofilm. The morphological analysis was also in line with the
Abdulsalam A. Al-Tamimi
(aaaltamimi@ksu.edu.sa) crystal violet assay results. On the other hand, the surface roughness was affected by
the complexity, geometrical variations, and limitations of fused filament fabrication
Citation: Al-Tamimi AA, Aldawood
E. The effect of 3D-printed bone three-dimensional printing. For the RD, SP, GY, and SD designs, an increase in surface
tissue scaffolds geometrical designs roughness was demonstrated to increase the production of bacterial biofilms.
on bacterial biofilm formation. Int J Without statistical significance, the RE design showed the opposite trend. Contrary
Bioprint. 2024;10(1):1768
doi: 10.36922/ijb.1768 to other designs, the increase in pore size of the SP and GY designs was associated
with the development of bacterial biofilms. This study suggests that it is possible
Received: September 6, 2023
Accepted: October 26, 2023 to minimize the likelihood of bacterial biofilm formation by optimizing the scaffold
Published Online: January 5, 2024 geometry and its manufacturing.
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article Keywords: 3D printing; Auxetic; Bacterial biofilm; Bone scaffold; Geometrical
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution design; Triply periodic minimal surface
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited.
1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with As one of the global public health issues, bone trauma has put an extensive pressure
regard to jurisdictional claims in on the healthcare system. Bone fractures, either mild or severe, always require medical
published maps and institutional
affiliations. intervention. In mild fractures, functionality of the bone in healing and remodeling is

Volume 10 Issue 1 (2024) 324 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.1768