Biological and mechanical response of graphene oxide surface-treated polylactic acid 3D-printed bone scaffolds: experimental and numerical approaches

Abstract

Employing 3D printing bone scaffolds with various polymers is growing due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and good mechanical properties. However, their biological properties need modification to have fewer difficulties in clinical experiments. Herein, the fused-deposition modeling technique is used to design triply-periodic-minimal-surfaces polylactic-acid scaffolds and evaluate their biological response under static and dynamic cell culture conditions. To enhance the biological response of 3D-printed bone scaffolds, graphene-oxide (GO) is coated on the surface of the scaffolds. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and energy-dispersion X-ray analysis are conducted to check the GO presence and its effects. Also, computational fluid dynamics analysis is implemented to investigate the shear stress on the scaffold, which is a critical parameter for cell proliferation under dynamic cell culture conditions. Compression tests and contact-angle measurements are performed to assess the GO effect on mechanical properties and wettability, respectively. Also, it was shown that surface-treated scaffolds have lower mechanical properties and higher wettability than uncoated scaffolds. A perfusion bioreactor is used to study cell culture. Also, field-emission-scanning-electron-microscope and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyl-tetrazolium-bromide (MTT) assay analyses are conducted to observe cell viability and cell attachment. An increase of up to 220% in viability was achieved with GO and dynamic cell culture.

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ORCID for Zia Ullah Arif: orcid.org/0000-0002-9254-7606

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