Tuning the Topography of Dynamic 3D Scaffolds through Functional Protein Wrinkled Coatings

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Tissue Engineering
• Surface Engineering

Background:

• Surface wrinkling is a method for creating biomaterial topographies that mimic in vivo cellular environments.
• Previous research primarily focused on 2D substrates, limiting wrinkling applications on complex 3D structures.
• Developing methods for 3D wrinkling is crucial for advanced biomimetic applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a low-cost experimental approach for fabricating wrinkled surfaces on complex 3D biomaterial scaffolds.
• To investigate the parameters influencing wrinkle morphology and stability on 3D structures.
• To assess the potential of these wrinkled surfaces for guiding cell behavior in tissue engineering.

Main Methods:

• Combined natural silk fibroin films with shape-memory polymer (SMP) scaffolds programmed with 3D strain.
• Systematically varied SMP programmed strain magnitude, silk film thickness, and aqueous media conditions.
• Analyzed wrinkle morphology (wavelength, amplitude) and stability in cell culture medium.

Main Results:

• Successfully generated tunable micron and sub-micron scale silk wrinkles on 3D SMP scaffolds.
• Increasing SMP strain magnitude decreased wrinkle amplitude and increased wavelength.
• Increasing silk film thickness increased both wrinkle wavelength and amplitude; wrinkles remained stable in cell culture medium.

Conclusions:

• The developed method enables the fabrication of biomimetic wrinkled topographies on complex 3D structures.
• Wrinkled surfaces demonstrated high cell viability and attachment, indicating suitability for cell culture.
• This approach holds potential for engineering cellular microenvironments to control cell-material interactions in tissue constructs.