Developing a teriparatide-loaded calcium silicate biomaterial ink for 3D printing of scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Critical-size bone defects of complex geometries are challenging to repair, making current approaches less satisfactory. Although calcium silicate (CaS) scaffolds prepared using 3D printing can be promising, these scaffolds are commonly treated with harsh conditions to reinforce their strength, significantly affecting the activity of biomolecules in the scaffolds. In this study, we developed a novel CaS biomaterial ink that did not require harsh post-treatments. It is shown that the printability was significantly improved using polyethylene glycol (PEG) and pluronic F-127 (PF), and the scaffolds showed excellent shape fidelity after printing. Moreover, the scaffolds demonstrated compatible mechanical strength with trabecular bone (-7.07 MPa vs. 0.6 - 16.8 MPa), and adding teriparatide (TP) in scaffolds could further improve the scaffold's potential for bone tissue engineering.