3D Printed, Microgroove Pattern-Driven Generation of Oriented Ligamentous Architectures

Chan Park, Kyoung-Hwa Kim, Yong-Moo Lee, William Giannobile, Yang-Jo Seol
2017 International Journal of Molecular Sciences  
Specific orientations of regenerated ligaments are crucially required for mechanoresponsive properties and various biomechanical adaptations, which are the key interplay to support mineralized tissues. Although various 2D platforms or 3D printing systems can guide cellular activities or aligned organizations, it remains a challenge to develop ligament-guided, 3D architectures with the angular controllability for parallel, oblique or perpendicular orientations of cells required for biomechanical
more » ... support of organs. Here, we show the use of scaffold design by additive manufacturing for specific topographies or angulated microgroove patterns to control cell orientations such as parallel (0 • ), oblique (45 • ) and perpendicular (90 • ) angulations. These results demonstrate that ligament cells displayed highly predictable and controllable orientations along microgroove patterns on 3D biopolymeric scaffolds. Our findings demonstrate that 3D printed topographical approaches can regulate spatiotemporal cell organizations that offer strong potential for adaptation to complex tissue defects to regenerate ligament-bone complexes. complexes [8] . Therefore, perpendicular/oblique PDL orientations to the tooth-root surfaces add to the functionalization and revitalization of tooth-supportive biofunctional structures. Various state-of-the-art approaches with micro-/nano-topographical characteristics on 2D substrates have been developed to generate various cell-material interactions [9] [10] [11] and to regulate cell behaviors, such as cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, differentiation or specific cell organizations [12] [13] [14] . Beyond 2D perspectives for biomedical applications, additive manufacturing or 3D printing techniques permit spatial designs of specific geometries [15] , and many efforts have contributed to manufacturing 3D scaffolding systems for preclinical and clinical scenarios [16] [17] [18] [19] . In our example, fiber-guiding scaffolds particularly promoted periodontal regeneration with tissue compartmentalization and limited PDL organizations to the tooth root surface [20] . In addition to preclinical studies, our first human case study using a patient-specific scaffold manufactured by 3D printing attempted to treat a large periodontal defect and to regenerate periodontal complexes (bone-PDL-cementum) [21] . However, there remain challenging limitations for the spatiotemporally control of perpendicular/oblique angulations of ligamentous bundles for physiological functioning restorations in the ligament-bone complexes. Herein, we investigated a simple, but precisely controllable method to create 3D printed architectures with cell-responsive, micro-topographies with angulated patterns on spatial scaffolds (Figures 1 and 2) . The additive manufacturing system creates micron-scaled, layer-by-layer artifacts, which are generally removed for smooth surface qualities. In this study, the angular-controllable microgrooves (known as artifacts) were actively considered for specific surface patterns, which can be programmed in the digital slicing step of the additive manufacturing procedure (Figures 1B and 2A) . The manufacturing strategy for biomimetic microenvironments can enable integrated angulated microgroove patterns on ligament-guiding scaffolds to promote spatiotemporally-directional and anisotropic cellular consolidations.
doi:10.3390/ijms18091927 pmid:28885543 pmcid:PMC5618576 fatcat:avtp57ls6nbydbvu72ojuehody