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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Enhanced Attachment and Collagen Type I Deposition

of MC3T3-E1 Cells via Electrohydrodynamic Printed

Sub-Microscale Fibrous Architectures

Shugang Hu , Zijie Meng 2,3,† , Junpeng Zhou , Yongwei Li , Yanwen Su , Qi Lei , Mao Mao ,
1,†
1
2,3
2,3
2,3
1
Xiaoli Qu , Jiankang He *, Wei Wang *
2,3
1
2,3
1 Department of Bone and Joint Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xian Jiaotong University, Xian Shaanxi, 710004,
People’s Republic of China
2 State key laboratory for manufacturing systems engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, People’s
Republic of China
3 NMPA Key Lab for Research and Evaluation of Additive Manufacturing Medical Devices, Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an, 710049, China
†These authors contributed equally to this work
Abstract: Micro/sub-microscale fibrillar architectures of extracellular matrix play important roles in regulating cellular
behaviors such as attachment, migration, and differentiation. However, the interactions between cells and organized micro/
sub-microscale fibers have not been fully clarified yet. Here, the responses of MC3T3-E1 cells to electrohydrodynamic (EHD)
printed scaffolds with microscale and/or sub-microscale fibrillar architectures were investigated to demonstrate their potential
for bone tissue regeneration. Fibrillar scaffolds were EHD-fabricated with microscale (20.51 ± 1.70 μm) and/or sub-microscale
(0.58 ± 0.51 μm) fibers in a controlled manner. The in vitro results showed that cells exhibited a 1.25-fold increase in initial
attached cell number and 1.17-fold increase in vinculin expression on scaffolds with micro/sub-microscale fibers than that
on scaffolds with pure microscale fibers. After 14 days of culture, the cells expressed 1.23 folds increase in collagen type I
(COL-I) deposition compared with that on scaffolds with pure microscale fibers. These findings indicated that the EHD printed
sub-microscale fibrous architectures can facilitate attachment and COL I secretion of MC3T3-E1 cells, which may provide a
new insight to the design and fabrication of fibrous scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.
Keywords: Electrohydrodynamic printing; Micro/sub-microscale fibrous architectures; MC3T3-E1; Cell-scaffold
interaction; Bone tissue engineering

*Correspondence to: Wei Wang, Department of Bone and Joint Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xian Jiaotong, University, Xian
Shaanxi, 710004, People’s Republic of China; dr.wangwei@xjtu.edu.cn; Jiankang He, State key laboratory for manufacturing systems
engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, People’s Republic of China; jiankanghe@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

Received: December 6, 2021; Accepted: January 10, 2022; Published Online: February 11, 2022
Citation: Hu S, Meng Z, Zhou J, et al., 2022, Enhanced Attachment and Collagen Type I Deposition of Mc3t3-E1 Cells via Electrohydrodynamic
Printed Sub-Microscale Fibrous Architectures. Int J Bioprint, 8(2):514. http://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v8i2.514

1. Introduction great importance to restoring the biological functions
of damaged bone tissues in vitro . In this aspect,
[4]
The extracellular matrix (ECM) of native bone exhibits electrospinning technique has been widely utilized
filamentous nature, which consists of highly organized as a promising approach for the construction of bone
micro/nanoscale collagen fibers with hydroxyapatite tissue engineering scaffolds due to its unique capability
and serves as crucial biophysical cues in regulating in fabricating ECM-mimetic ultrafine fibers [5-7] . For
cellular behaviors for bone homeostasis [1-3] . Mimicking example, Yao et al. developed polycaprolactone (PCL)
[8]
such fibrillar architectures in artificial implants is of and polylactic acid composite fibrous scaffolds with
© 2022 Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting distribution and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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