Microfluidic 3D Printing Responsive Scaffolds with Biomimetic Enrichment Channels for Bone Regeneration

Tissue-engineered scaffolds have been extensively explored for treating bone defects; however, slow and insufficient vascularization throughout the scaffolds remains a key challenge for further application. Herein, a versatile microfluidic 3D printing strategy to fabricate black phosphorus (BP) incorporated fibrous scaffolds with photothermal responsive channels for improving vascularization and bone regeneration is proposed. The thermal channeled scaffolds display reversible shrinkage and swelling behavior controlled by near-infrared irradiation, which facilitates the penetration of suspended cells into the scaffold channels and promotes the prevascularization. Furthermore, the embedded BP nanosheets exhibit intrinsic properties for in situ biomineralization and improve in vitro cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. Following transplantation in vivo, these channels also promote host vessel infiltration deep into the scaffolds and effectively accelerate the healing process of bone defects. Thus, it is believed that these near-infrared responsive channeled scaffolds are promising candidates for tissue/vascular ingrowth in diverse tissue engineering applications.

Automated summary

A versatile microfluidic 3D printing strategy was proposed to fabricate fibrous scaffolds with photothermal responsive channels to improve vascularization and bone regeneration. The thermal channeled scaffolds displayed reversible behavior controlled by near-infrared irradiation, facilitating cell penetration and prevascularization, while embedded BP nanosheets promoted in situ biomineralization and cell proliferation. These near-infrared responsive channeled scaffolds showed promising potential for tissue/vascular ingrowth in tissue engineering applications.