Marine Plankton-Derived Whitlockite Powder-Based 3D-Printed Porous Scaffold for Bone Tissue Engineering

• Published in: Materials Vol. 15; no. 10; p. 3413
• Main Authors: Baek, Ji-Won, Park, Ho, Kim, Ki-Su, Chun, Sung-Kun, Kim, Beom-Su
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 10.05.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: 3-D printers; 3-dimensional printing; Addition polymerization; Alkaline phosphatase; Bioceramics; Biocompatibility; Biomedical materials; bone; Bones; Calcium phosphates; Cell adhesion & migration; Cell growth; Compressive strength; Cytotoxicity; Heavy metal content; Mechanical properties; Morphology; Phosphatase; Plankton; Polymerase chain reaction; scaffold; Scaffolds; Scanning electron microscopy; Stem cells; Structural shapes; Three dimensional printing; Tissue engineering; Trace elements; whitlockite; United States > US; tissue engineering; bone; 3-dimensional printing; whitlockite; scaffold
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma15103413

Powder-based 3D printing is an excellent technique for the fabrication of complex structural shapes. The outstanding bone remodeling capacity of calcium phosphate bioceramics is a desirable characteristic for such fabrication. Whitlockite (WH) is a calcium phosphate-based ceramic that contains Mg ions and possesses good mechanical properties, rapid resorbability, and promotes osteogenesis. The aim of this study was to fabricate 3D-printed scaffolds using marine plankton-derived WH (MP-WH) powder. The surface morphology and composition of the fabricated scaffolds were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The biocompatibility and osteogenic effects were evaluated using human mesenchymal stem cells. We successfully obtained a 3D porous scaffold using MP-WH. The MP-WH 3D scaffold showed improved compressive strength compared to the tricalcium phosphate (TCP) 3D scaffold. The in vitro results showed that compared with TCP 3D scaffolds, MP-WH 3D scaffolds were biocompatible and enhanced cell proliferation and adhesion. In addition, alkaline phosphatase activity and real-time polymerase chain reaction assays demonstrated that osteoblast differentiation was improved on the MP-WH scaffold. These results suggest that marine plankton-derived WH is useful for fabricating 3D-printed scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications.