Orthopaedic Department, Faculty of Medicine , King Abdulaziz University , Jeddah 21589 , Saudi Arabia.
Shriners Hospital for Children , Montreal H4A 0A9 , Canada.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2019 May 1;11(17):15306-15315. doi: 10.1021/acsami.9b02502. Epub 2019 Apr 22.
Large bone defects represent a significant challenge for clinicians and surgeons. Tissue engineering for bone regeneration represents an innovative solution for this dilemma and may yield attractive alternate bone substitutes. Three-dimensional (3D) printing with inexpensive desktop printers shows promise in generating high-resolution structures mimicking native tissues using biocompatible, biodegradable, and cost-effective thermoplastics, which are already FDA-approved for food use, drug delivery, and many medical devices. Microporous 3D-printed polylactic acid scaffolds, with different pore sizes (500, 750, and 1000 μm), were designed and manufactured using an inexpensive desktop 3D printer, and the mechanical properties were assessed. The scaffolds were compared for cell growth, activity, and bone-like tissue formation using primary human osteoblasts. Osteoblasts showed high proliferation, metabolic activity, and osteogenic matrix protein production, in which 750 μm pore-size scaffolds showed superiority. Further experimentation using human mesenchymal stem cells on 750 μm pore scaffolds showed their ability in supporting osteogenic differentiation. These findings suggest that even in the absence of any surface modifications, low-cost 750 μm pore-size 3D-printed scaffolds may be suitable as a bone substitute for repair of large bone defects.
大骨缺损是临床医生和外科医生面临的重大挑战。组织工程学为骨再生提供了一个创新的解决方案，可能会产生有吸引力的替代骨替代品。使用廉价的桌面打印机进行三维（3D）打印有望生成使用生物相容性、可生物降解且具有成本效益的热塑性塑料模拟天然组织的高分辨率结构，这些热塑性塑料已经获得 FDA 批准用于食品、药物输送和许多医疗设备。设计并制造了不同孔径（500、750 和 1000 μm）的微孔 3D 打印聚乳酸支架，使用廉价的桌面 3D 打印机进行制造，并评估了其机械性能。使用原代人成骨细胞比较了支架的细胞生长、活性和类骨组织形成。成骨细胞表现出高增殖、代谢活性和成骨基质蛋白产生，其中 750 μm 孔径支架表现出优越性。在 750 μm 孔径支架上使用人骨髓间充质干细胞进行进一步实验表明，它们具有支持成骨分化的能力。这些发现表明，即使在没有任何表面改性的情况下，低成本的 750 μm 孔径 3D 打印支架也可能适合作为修复大骨缺损的骨替代物。
