Biodegradable Honeycomb-Mimic Scaffolds Consisting of Nanofibrous Walls

Young Gun Ko; Laura A Smith Callahan; Peter X Ma

doi:10.1002/mabi.202300540

Biodegradable Honeycomb-Mimic Scaffolds Consisting of Nanofibrous Walls

Macromol Biosci. 2024 Mar 8:e2300540. doi: 10.1002/mabi.202300540. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Young Gun Ko¹, Laura A Smith Callahan², Peter X Ma^{2

3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Sangmyung University, Hongjimun 2-gil 20, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 03016, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
³ Department of Biologic and Materials Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
⁴ Macromolecular Science and Engineering Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.

PMID: 38456554
DOI: 10.1002/mabi.202300540

Abstract

The scaffold is a porous three-dimensional (3D) material that supports cell growth and tissue regeneration. Such 3D structures should be generated with simple techniques and nontoxic ingredients to mimic bio-environment and facilitate tissue regeneration. In this work, simple but powerful techniques are demonstrated for the fabrication of lamellar and honeycomb-mimic scaffolds with poly(L-lactic acid). The honeycomb-mimic scaffolds with tunable pore size ranging from 70 to 160 µm are fabricated by crystal needle-guided thermally induced phase separation in a directional freezing apparatus. The compressive modulus of the honeycomb-mimic scaffold is ≈4 times higher than that of scaffold with randomly oriented pore structure. The fabricated honeycomb-mimic scaffold exhibits a hierarchical structure from nanofibers to micro-/macro-tubular structures. Pre-osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells cultured on the honeycomb-mimic nanofibrous scaffolds exhibit an enhanced osteoblastic phenotype, with elevated expression levels of osteogenic marker genes, than those on either porous lamellar scaffolds or porous scaffolds with randomly oriented pores. The advanced techniques for the fabrication of the honeycomb-mimic structure may potentially be used for a wide variety of advanced functional materials.

Keywords: biomimetic honeycomb; nanofibrous scaffolds; phase separation; polymeric biomaterials; tissue engineering.