Evaluation of Aloe Vera Coated Polylactic Acid Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering

Abstract

3D-printed polylactic acid (PLA) scaffolds have been demonstrated as being a promising tool for the development of tissue-engineered replacements of bone. However, this material lacks a suitable surface chemistry to efficiently interact with extracellular proteins and, consequently, to integrate into the surrounding tissue when implanted in vivo. In this study, aloe vera coatings have been proposed as a strategy to improve the bioaffinity of this type of structures. Aloe vera coatings were applied at three different values of pH (3, 4 and 5), after treating the surface of the PLA scaffolds with oxygen plasma. The surface modification of the material has been assessed through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis and water contact angle measurements. In addition, the evaluation of the enzymatic degradation of the structures showed that the pH of the aloe vera extracts used as coating influences the degradation rate of the PLA-based scaffolds. Finally, the cell metabolic activity of an in vitro culture of human fetal osteoblastic cells on the samples revealed an improvement of this parameter on aloe vera coated samples, especially for those treated at pH 3. Hence, these structures showed potential for being applied for bone tissue regeneration.

Multilayer Films Based on Poly(lactic acid)/Gelatin Supplemented with Cellulose Nanocrystals and Antioxidant Extract from Almond Shell By-Product and Its Application on Hass Avocado Preservation

“…As a result, the use of corona treatment was found to increase the polar contribution as well as the dispersive component, showing an overall surface tension increase (Table 2). These results are in line with previous reported studies [20,[30][31][32], 80 s being the most suitable corona treatment time for the PLA surface, improving the adhesiveness when in contact with the intermediate fish gelatin monolayer. C = carbon, O = oxygen, γ p s = polar contribution, γ d s = dispersive contribution, and γ s = surface tension of the tested film.…”

Could Curdlan/Whey Protein Isolate/Hydroxyapatite Biomaterials Be Considered as Promising Bone Scaffolds?—Fabrication, Characterization, and Evaluation of Cytocompatibility towards Osteoblast Cells In Vitro

“…For evaluation of the potential ability of biomaterials to degrade, this in vitro experiment was performed using two solutions of proteases (collagenase I and proteinase K). Both collagenase I and proteinase K solutions are successfully used for assessment of degradability in vitro of bone scaffolds [ 50 , 51 ]. Firstly, it was demonstrated that both biomaterials were stable in control solution (PBS) during 9 weeks of the experiment ( Figure 5 a,b).…”

Effects of ceramic additives and bioactive coatings on the degradation of polylactic acid‐based bone scaffolds under hydrolytic conditions

“…3,55 On the other hand, the Aloe vera bioactive coatings applied to the structures showed no effect on the mechanical properties. Hence, the procedure proposed to modify the polymeric surface allows to improve the biological properties of the sample, as we have demonstrated in our previous study, 23 without a loss of mechanical properties; which are more related to the crystalline phase. 2 In contrast, the advanced stages of degradation are characterized by a marked decrease in molecular weight, weight of the structure and crystallinity of the base material, and consequently in the mechanical properties of the 3D-structure.…”

“…PLA powder was mixed with the ceramic additives in a ratio of PLA:CaCO 3 :β‐TCP 95:2.5:2.5 (wt:wt). This mixture was fed into a lab prototype extruder to obtain continuous filaments with a mean diameter of around 1.75 mm, using the working parameters presented in our previous work 23 . PLA filaments without incorporation of additives were also produced by this method.…”

“…In the present study, PLA and composite scaffolds manufactured by AM were later treated with oxygen plasma and coated with Aloe vera extracts, aiming to attach bioactive compounds that could favor cell adhesion and proliferation. A preliminary biological evaluation of this surface modification method was carried out in a previous work 23 . The in vitro cell culture of osteoblastic cells on PLA scaffolds revealed an improvement of cell metabolic activity for Aloe vera coated samples.…”