Page 547 - IJB-9-6

International
Journal of Bioprinting

RESEARCH ARTICLE
3D printing of PCL-ceramic composite scaffolds

for bone tissue engineering applications

1,3
Santosh Kumar Parupelli , Sheikh Saudi , Narayan Bhattarai , and Salil Desai *
1,3
2,3
2
1 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, North Carolina A&T State University,
Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
2 Department of Chemical, Biological and Bioengineering, North Carolina A&T State University,
Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
3 Center of Excellence in Product Design and Advanced Manufacturing, North Carolina A&T State
University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Additive Manufacturing of Functional Biomaterials)

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) printing was utilized for the fabrication of a composite
scaffold of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and calcium magnesium phosphate (CMP)
bioceramics for bone tissue engineering application. Four groups of scaffolds,
that is, PMC-0, PMC-5, PMC-10, and PMC-15, were fabricated using a custom 3D
printer. Rheology analysis, surface morphology, and wettability of the scaffolds
were characterized. The PMC-0 scaffolds displayed a smoother surface texture and
an increase in the ceramic content of the composite scaffolds exhibited a rougher
structure. The hydrophilicity of the composite scaffold was significantly enhanced
compared to the control PMC-0. The effect of ceramic content on the bioactivity of
*Corresponding author: fibroblast NIH/3T3 cells in the composite scaffold was investigated. Cell viability and
Salil Desai toxicity studies were evaluated by comparing results from lactate dehydrogenase
(sdesai@ncat.edu) (LDH) and Alamar Blue (AB) colorimetric assays, respectively. The live-dead cell
Citation: Parupelli SK, Saudi S, assay illustrated the biocompatibility of the tested samples with more than 100%
Bhattarai N, et al. 2023, 3D printing of of live cells on day 3 compared to the control one. The LDH release indicated that
PCL-ceramic composite scaffolds for the composite scaffolds improved cell attachment and proliferation. In this research,
bone tissue engineering applications.
Int J Bioprint, 9(6): 0196. the fabrication of a customized composite 3D scaffold not only mimics the rough
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.0196 textured architecture, porosity, and chemical composition of natural bone tissue
Received: September 11, 2022 matrices but also serves as a source for soluble ions of calcium and magnesium
that are favorable for bone cells to grow. These 3D-printed scaffolds thus provide
Accepted: November 18, 2022
a desirable microenvironment to facilitate biomineralization and could be a new
Published Online: July 5, 2023 effective approach for preparing constructs suitable for bone tissue engineering.
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the Keywords: 3D printing; Bio-ceramics; Composites; Bone; Scaffold; Tissue engineering
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited. 1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: AccScience Tissue engineering (TE) is an interdisciplinary field that emerged as a promising
Publishing remains neutral with technique that utilizes cells, biomaterials, biochemical (e.g., growth factors), and physical
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional (e.g., mechanical loading) signals to generate new tissue structures. The goal of TE is to
affiliations. improve, replace, or restore damaged tissues or organs from any causes, such as disease,

Volume 9 Issue 6 (2023) 539 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.0196