Development of 3D-Printed Scaffolds with Mathematically Defined Curvature for Osteochondral Defect Repair Applications

first_page settings Order Article Reprints Font Type: Arial Georgia Verdana Font Size: Aa Aa Aa Line Spacing:    Column Width:    Background: Open AccessAbstract Development of 3D-Printed Scaffolds with Mathematically Defined Curvature for Osteochondral Defect Repair Applications † by Pedro Marcelino 1,2,3, João Carlos Silva 1,2,3,*, Carla Moura 1, João Meneses 1, Nuno Alves 1, Paula Pascoal-Faria 1,4 and Frederico Castelo Ferreira 2,3,* 1 CDRSP—Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development, Polytechnic of Leiria, Rua de Portugal-Zona Industrial, 2430-028 Marinha Grande, Portugal 2 Department of Bioengineering and iBB—Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal 3 Associate Laboratory i4HB—Institute for Health and Bioeconomy, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal 4 Department of Mathematics, School of Technology and Management, Polytechnic of Leiria, Morro do Lena—Alto do Vieiro, Apartado 4163, 2411-901 Leiria, Portugal * Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed. † Presented at the Materiais 2022, Marinha Grande, Portugal, 10–13 April 2022. Mater. Proc. 2022, 8(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008011 Published: 19 May 2022 (This article belongs to the Proceedings of MATERIAIS 2022) Download Download PDF Download XML Download Epub Versions Notes Scaffolds are one major component in osteochondral tissue engineering (OCTE) applications, acting as a structural support for cell proliferation and differentiation. However, the majority of described scaffolds present planar surfaces, compromising the reproduction of the natural curvature of the tissue (e.g., bone). Mimicking native tissue should be crucial, particularly in OCTE so that mechanical loads could be evenly distributed over the engineered constructs. In this work, a new strategy for the design of scaffolds is presented, using the radius of a sphere to characterize their curvature. Following a parametric design strategy, it becomes a versatile and efficient process to create scaffolds with diverse curvatures. The manufacture of the scaffolds was accomplished by fused filament fabrication (FFF) technique using the biocompatible, biodegradable and FDA-approved poly (lactic acid) (PLA) material. Considering the necessity for each layer to be printed over the bed or previously deposited material, a maximum curvature radius, to be produced by FFF, of 17.0638 mm was calculated for scaffolds with side dimensions of 20.1 mm × 20.1 mm. Curved scaffolds were manufactured with a radius of 17.0638 mm and 20 mm and structural integrity evaluated by micro-CT imaging, confirming the maximum curvature printability limitations. Additionally, finite element analysis (FEA) was used to assess the mechanical behavior of scaffolds to compressive loads. Considering these results, FFF curved scaffold manufacturing holds promising prospects to address the fabrication of scaffolds mimicking the natural curvature of osteochondral tissues. Author ContributionsConceptualization: P.M, J.C.S., P.P.-F. and F.C.F.; Investigation: P.M., J.C.S., J.M. and C.M.; Software: P.M. and J.M.; Writing—original draft preparation: P.M. and J.C.S.; Writing—review and editing: P.M., J.C.S., P.P.-F. and F.C.F.; Supervision: J.C.S., P.P.-F. and F.C.F.; Funding acquisition: J.C.S., N.A., P.P.-F. and F.C.F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.FundingThe authors thank Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia for funding through CDRSP (UIDB/04044/2020 and UIDP/04044/2020), iBB (UIDB/04565/2020 and UIDP/04565/2020), i4HB (LA/P/0140/2020), and through the projects OptiBioScaffold (PTDC/EME-SIS/4446/2020) and InSilico4OCReg (PTDC/EME-SIS/0838/2021).Institutional Review Board StatementNot applicable.Informed Consent StatementNot applicable.Data Availability StatementNot applicable.Conflicts of InterestThe authors declare no conflict of interest.Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Share and Cite MDPI and ACS Style Marcelino, P.; Silva, J.C.; Moura, C.; Meneses, J.; Alves, N.; Pascoal-Faria, P.; Ferreira, F.C. Development of 3D-Printed Scaffolds with Mathematically Defined Curvature for Osteochondral Defect Repair Applications. Mater. Proc. 2022, 8, 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008011 AMA Style Marcelino P, Silva JC, Moura C, Meneses J, Alves N, Pascoal-Faria P, Ferreira FC. Development of 3D-Printed Scaffolds with Mathematically Defined Curvature for Osteochondral Defect Repair Applications. Materials Proceedings. 2022; 8(1):11. https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008011 Chicago/Turabian Style Marcelino, Pedro, João Carlos Silva, Carla Moura, João Meneses, Nuno Alves, Paula Pascoal-Faria, and Frederico Castelo Ferreira. 2022. "Development of 3D-Printed Scaffolds with Mathematically Defined Curvature for Osteochondral Defect Repair Applications" Materials Proceedings 8, no. 1: 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008011 Find Other Styles Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here. Article Metrics No No Article Access Statistics Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view.