Converging volumetric bioprinting and electrospinning to develop a patient-specific hierarchical scaffold for bone regeneration.

Abstract

Bone injuries affect million people every year and they dramatically decrease the quality of life of the patients. Recently, novel biofabrication techniques for instance extrusion-based and inkjet technologies and light-based 3D printing have provided a potential platform for the treatment of bone defects. Although these techniques have been explored, they present significant operational limitations, such as lack of biocompatibility or materials unaffordability. In this way, the purpose of this study is to enhance the regeneration of critical-size bone defects by converging electrospinning and volumetric bioprinting. The approach consists in fabricating a silk fibroin electrospun scaffold that will be subsequently mineralized with apatite crystals. The scaffold will then be combined with volumetric bioprinting using the PEGDA resin including MC3T3-E1 cells. On the one hand, mechanical analysis will be carried out to evaluate the resemblance of the nanofibers to the collagen fibers. Additionally, the rheological properties of the bioresin will be assessed and the resistance of the whole scaffold to physiological load will be evaluated. On the other hand, biological assays will be carried out to assess the viability, metabolic activity and differentiation ability of the cells. For that, these cells will be used including MC3T3-E1 cells. The electrospun scaffold is expected to resemble the nanohierarchical structure of the native bone tissue, while volumetric bioprinting aims to improve the biological behaviour of the scaffold. In general, combining electrospinning and volumetric bioprinting will mimic the native bone tissue and, thus, it will provide a favourable environment for the regeneration of the host tissue.