Graft substitute is a mature treatment tool in craniofacial bone repair. However, stress shielding and immutability of structure limit its use in patients with congenital defects. Therefore, a regenerative graft would be best suited for repair. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to be feasible in regenerative medicine and the clinical treatment of bone repair. The aim of this study was to propose a strategy that would directly blend graphene oxide (GO) and MSCs with gelatin methacrylate anhydride (GelMA), as bioink, to generate the scaffold for bone regenerative repair. The survival and osteogenic capacity of MSCs in the composite bioink were assessed by cell viability and proliferation assays, along with expression analysis of osteogenesis-related genes and proteins, and targeted immunofluorescence. The introduction of GO to the printing process had no influence on cell printing, viability, or printability of GelMa. However, the GO-involved structure exhibited a positive influence on MSC proliferation, without significantly affecting cell viability. Alkaline phosphatase was expressed more in cells cultured with GO than in those with pure GelMA. In addition, GO promoted the expression of osteogenesis-related genes and proteins, such as osteopontin, osteocalcin, and RUNX2. Collectively, the composite bioink enhanced cell proliferation and adhesion, as well as osteogenic differentiation properties, compared with pure GelMA.
Keywords: Cell proliferation; gelatin methacrylate anhydride/graphene oxide composite; osteogenesis; osteogenic differentiation; three-dimensional bioprinting.