Bone ECM-like 3D Printing Scaffold with Liquid Crystalline and Viscoelastic Microenvironment for Bone Regeneration

Implanting a 3D printing scaffold is an effective therapeutic strategy for personalized bone repair. As the key factor for the success of bone tissue engineering, the scaffold should provide an appropriate bone regeneration microenvironment and excellent mechanical properties. In fact, the most ideal osteogenic microenvironment is undoubtedly provided by natural bone extracellular matrix (ECM), which exhibits liquid crystalline and viscoelastic characteristics. However, mimicking a bone ECM-like microenvironment in a 3D structure with outstanding mechanical properties is a huge challenge. Herein, we develop a facile approach to fabricate a bionic scaffold perfectly combining bone ECM-like microenvironment and robust mechanical properties. Creatively, 3D printing a poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) scaffold was effectively strengthened via layer-by-layer electrostatic self-assembly of chitin whiskers. More importantly, a kind of chitin whisker/chitosan composite hydrogel with bone ECM-like liquid crystalline state and viscoelasticity was infused into the robust PLLA scaffold to build the bone ECM-like microenvironment in 3D structure, thus highly promoting bone regeneration. Moreover, deferoxamine, an angiogenic factor, was encapsulated in the composite hydrogel and sustainably released, playing a long-term role in angiogenesis and thereby further promoting osteogenesis. This scaffold with bone ECM-like microenvironment and excellent mechanical properties can be considered as an effective implantation for bone repair.