Fabrication of 3D printed antimicrobial polycaprolactone scaffolds for tissue engineering applications

Socrates Radhakrishnan (1) , Sakthivel Nagarajan (2) , Habib Belaid (2) , Cynthia Farha (2) , Igor Iatsunskyi (3) , Emerson Coy (3) , Laurence Soussan (2) , Vincent Huon (4) , Jonathan Barés (4) , Catherine Teyssier (5) , Sébastien Balme (2) , Philippe Miele (2) , David Cornu (2) , Narayana Kalkura (1) , Vincent Cavaillès (5) , Mikhael Bechelany (2)

1 Anna University
2 IEM - Institut Européen des membranes
3 UAM - Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu = Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
4 COMPEX - Expérimentation & Calcul Scientifique
5 IRCM - U1194 Inserm - UM - Institut de Recherche en Cancérologie de Montpellier

Synthetic polymers are widely employed for bone tissue engineering due to their tunable physical properties and biocompatibility. Inherently, most of these polymers display poor antimicrobial properties. Infection at the site of implantation is a major cause for failure or delay in bone healing process and the development of anti-microbial polymers is highly desired. In this study, silver nanoparticles (AgNps) were synthesized in poly-caprolactone (PCL) solution by in-situ reduction and further extruded into PCL/AgNps filaments. Customized 3D structures were fabricated using the PCL/AgNps filaments through 3D printing technique. As demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy, the 3D printed scaffolds exhibited interconnected porous structures. Furthermore, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis revealed the reduction of silver ions. Transmission electron micro-scopy along with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis confirmed the formation of silver nanoparticles throughout the PCL matrix. In vitro enzymatic degradation studies showed that the PCL/AgNps scaffolds dis-played 80% degradation in 20 days. The scaffolds were cytocompatible, as assessed using hFOB cells and their antibacterial activity was demonstrated on Escherichia coli. Due to their interconnected porous structure, me-chanical and antibacterial properties, these cytocompatible multifunctional 3D printed PCL/AgNps scaffolds appear highly suitable for bone tissue engineering.

Mots clés: Polycaprolactone; Silver nanoparticles; Nanocomposites; Cytocompatibility; Antimicrobial; Multifunctional properties

Domaines: Chimie

Socrates Radhakrishnan, Sakthivel Nagarajan, Habib Belaid, Cynthia Farha, Igor Iatsunskyi, et al.. Fabrication of 3D printed antimicrobial polycaprolactone scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Materials Science and Engineering: C, 2021, 118, pp.111525. ⟨10.1016/j.msec.2020.111525⟩. ⟨hal-03258024⟩