Poly-p-dioxanone as a new scaffold material for 3D printing in tissue engineering

Sebastian Loewner

Abstract

In this study, poly-p-dioxanone (PDO) (Resomer® X, Evon­ik Industries AG, Germany), a material already used as sur­gical suture with elastic and biocompatible properties1, was characterized for processing in 3D printing and for potential application as biodegradable scaffold for tissue engineering. PDO as a heat sensitive polymer2 was characterized using 3D printed specimen in tensile testing (n=5). Heat process­ing showed no effect on elongation at break but a decrease in Young’s modulus of 18,9 ± 4,0% and tensile strength of 31,8 ± 12,1%, likely due to inhomogeneity. The biocom­pability of PDO was investigated using a Cell Titer Blue® Assay (n=3) according to DIN ISO 10993 and revealed a vi­ability of above 85% for human umbilical venous endothe­lial cells (HUVECs) or adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells. Microstructured PDO scaffolds were generated using extrusion based 3D printing with a resolution of up to 100μm (strand diameter). Printing parameters were op­timized to allow printing slightly above the melting tem­perature of PDO (~110 °C) to minimize heat degradation while accomplishing high resolution and precision. Cells seeded on fibrin-coated PDO scaffolds showed a good cell adhesion with preserved physiological properties in terms of cell migration and cell growth. Establishing the process of 3D printing of PDO scaffolds opens the possibility, to man­ufacture individually designed scaffolds to meet the need for patient-adapted soft tissue engineered products in the near future. Prospectively, combined techniques such as the inte­gration of melt electro spinning writing (MESW) to create scaffolds with enhanced properties to tissue formation are envisioned.