Physiologic Response Evaluation of Human Foetal Osteoblast Cells within Engineered 3D-Printed Polylactic Acid Scaffolds

Abstract

Large bone defect treatments have always been one of the important challenges in clinical practice and created a huge demand for more efficacious regenerative approaches. The bone tissue engineering (BTE) approach offered a new alternative to conventional bone grafts, addressing all clinical needs. Over the past years, BTE research is focused on the study and realisation of new biomaterials, including 3D-printed supports to improve mechanical, structural and biological properties. Among these, polylactic acid (PLA) scaffolds have been considered the most promising biomaterials due to their good biocompatibility, non-toxic biodegradability and bioresorbability. In this work, we evaluated the physiological response of human foetal osteoblast cells (hFOB), in terms of cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation, within oxygen plasma treated 3D-printed PLA scaffolds, obtained by fused deposition modelling (FDM). A mechanical simulation to predict their behaviour to traction, flexural or torque solicitations was performed. We found that: 1. hFOB cells adhere and grow on scaffold surfaces; 2. hFOB grown on oxygen plasma treated PLA scaffolds (PLA_PT) show an improvement of cell adhesion and proliferation, compared to not-plasma treated scaffolds (PLA_NT); 3. Over time, hFOB penetrate along strands, differentiate, and form a fibrous matrix, tissue-like; 4. 3D-printed PLA scaffolds have good mechanical behaviour in each analysed configuration. These findings suggest that 3D-printed PLA scaffolds could represent promising biomaterials for medical implantable devices in the orthopaedic field.

Microporous Fluorescent Poly(D,L-lactide) Acid–Carbon Nanodot Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering Applications

“…As can be seen in Figure 8a-l, PLA-CD 5% scaffolds preserve the fluorescence property of CDs at every time point analyzed, suggesting their stability under physiological conditions and relevance in non-invasive tissue engineering monitoring applications. The data derived from both cell viability and morphological characterization analyses align with prior studies, indicating that PLA scaffolds exhibit the capability to support cell adhesion, growth, and proliferation [38]. Moreover, the incorporation of highly stable fluorescent CDs into a PLA polymer matrix offers a long-term non-invasive cell-scaffold interaction helpful in analyzing tissue regeneration kinetics [34].…”

“…both cell viability and morphological characterization analyses align with prior indicating that PLA scaffolds exhibit the capability to support cell adhesion, grow proliferation [38]. Moreover, the incorporation of highly stable fluorescent CD PLA polymer matrix offers a long-term non-invasive cell-scaffold interaction he analyzing tissue regeneration kinetics [34].…”

Bone Tissue Engineering and Nanotechnology: A Promising Combination for Bone Regeneration

“…(c) Synthetic polymers, including polystyrene, PLA, PGA, PCL, and polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), are often used, due to the possibility of regulating their mechanical properties, biodegradability, morphology, and structure during the fabrication process [64,65]. Recently, some in vitro studies have shown that 3D-printed PLA scaffolds are able to promote the adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of osteoblast cells [66,67]. In another study, the osteoregenerative capability of a porous PLGA (P) scaffold combined with magnesium hydroxide (MH, M), bone-extracellular matrix (bECM, E), and bioactive polydeoxyribonucleotide (PDRN, P) (PMEP scaffold) was evaluated.…”