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RESEARCH ARTICLE

3D bioprinting of stem cells and polymer/bioactive

glass composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

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1
3
1
1,a
Caroline Murphy , Krishna Kolan 1,a* , Wenbin Li , Julie Semon , Delbert Day and Ming Leu
1 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO
65409, USA
2 Department of Biological Sciences, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA
3 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409,
USA
a These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract: A major limitation of using synthetic scaffolds in tissue engineering applications is insufficient angiogenesis
in scaffold interior. Bioactive borate glasses have been shown to promote angiogenesis. There is a need to investigate
the biofabrication of polymer composites by incorporating borate glass to increase the angiogenic capacity of the fabri-
cated scaffolds. In this study, we investigated the bioprinting of human adipose stem cells (ASCs) with a polycaprolac-
tone (PCL)/bioactive borate glass composite. Borate glass at the concentration of 10 to 50 weight %, was added to a
mixture of PCL and organic solvent to make an extrudable paste. ASCs suspended in Matrigel were ejected as droplets
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using a second syringe. Scaffolds measuring 10 × 10 × 1 mm in overall dimensions with pore sizes ranging from 100 –
300 µm were fabricated. Degradation of the scaffolds in cell culture medium showed a controlled release of bioactive
glass for up to two weeks. The viability of ASCs printed on the scaffold was investigated during the same time period.
This 3D bioprinting method shows a high potential to create a bioactive, highly angiogenic three-dimensional environ-
ment required for complex and dynamic interactions that govern the cell’s behavior in vivo.
Keywords: bioprinting, biofabrication, human adipose-derived stem cell, MSCs, bioactive glass, polycaprolactone,
scaffold, tissue engineering

*Correspondence to: Krishna Kolan, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technol-
ogy, Rolla, MO, USA; E-mail: kolank@mst.edu

Received: November 9, 2016; Accepted: December 6, 2016; Published Online: January 6, 2017
Citation: Murphy C, Kolan K, Li W, et al., 2017, 3D bioprinting of stem cells and polymer/bioactive glass composite scaffolds
for bone tissue engineering. International Journal of Bioprinting, vol.3(1): 54–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.18063/IJB.2017.01.005.
1. Introduction or congenital skeletal abnormalities contribute to
D major surgeries performed every year. Autolog-
ysfunctional or reduced blood supply is sym-
ous bone graft is still considered as the gold standard
ptom of many health concerns, including di-
for most applications but creates donor site morbidi-
abetes, wound healing, and bone repair. Di-
abetes alone affects about 8.5% of the human popula- ty [2,3] . Allografts avoid these issues but have limited
availability, concerns over immunogenicity, and po-
tion and costs the world over $376 billion in medical tential disease transmission . Several materials in-
[4]
[1]
related expenses each year . Another problem asso- cluding biocompatible metals, bioceramics, and bio-
ciated with reduced blood supply exists in bone grafts. polymers are currently being investigated as candi-
Bone defects resulting from trauma, cancer, infection, dates for synthetic grafts. Additive manufacturing

3D bioprinting of stem cells and polymer/bioactive glass composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. © 2017 Caroline Murphy, et al. This is an
Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creative-
commons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
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