4D printing smart biomedical scaffolds with novel soybean oil epoxidized acrylate

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 27226
• Main Authors: Miao, Shida, Zhu, Wei, Castro, Nathan J., Nowicki, Margaret, Zhou, Xuan, Cui, Haitao, Fisher, John P., Zhang, Lijie Grace
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02.06.2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 14/19; 631/532/489; 631/61/54; Cell Adhesion; Cell Proliferation; Cells, Cultured; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells - cytology; multidisciplinary; Porosity; Printing, Three-Dimensional; Science; Soybean Oil - chemistry; Temperature; Tissue Engineering - instrumentation; Tissue Engineering - methods; Tissue Scaffolds - chemistry
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep27226

Photocurable, biocompatible liquid resins are highly desired for 3D stereolithography based bioprinting. Here we solidified a novel renewable soybean oil epoxidized acrylate, using a 3D laser printing technique, into smart and highly biocompatible scaffolds capable of supporting growth of multipotent human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Porous scaffolds were readily fabricated by simply adjusting the printer infill density; superficial structures of the polymerized soybean oil epoxidized acrylate were significantly affected by laser frequency and printing speed. Shape memory tests confirmed that the scaffold fixed a temporary shape at −18 °C and fully recovered its original shape at human body temperature (37 °C), which indicated the great potential for 4D printing applications. Cytotoxicity analysis proved that the printed scaffolds had significant higher hMSC adhesion and proliferation than traditional polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) and had no statistical difference from poly lactic acid (PLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL). This research is believed to significantly advance the development of biomedical scaffolds with renewable plant oils and advanced 3D fabrication techniques.