The Synergistic Effect of Cyclic Tensile Force and Periodontal Ligament Cell-Laden Calcium Silicate/Gelatin Methacrylate Auxetic Hydrogel Scaffolds for Bone Regeneration

The development of 3D printing technologies has allowed us to fabricate complex novel scaffolds for bone regeneration. In this study, we reported the incorporation of different concentrations of calcium silicate (CS) powder into fish gelatin methacrylate (FGelMa) for the fabrication of CS/FGelMa auxetic bio-scaffolds using 3D printing technology. Our results showed that CS could be successfully incorporated into FGelMa without influencing the original structural components of FGelMa. Furthermore, it conveyed that CS modifications both the mechanical properties and degradation rates of the scaffolds were improved in accordance with the concentrations of CS upon modifications of CS. In addition, the presence of CS enhanced the adhesion and proliferation of human periodontal ligament cells (hPDLs) cultured in the scaffold. Further osteogenic evaluation also confirmed that CS was able to enhance the osteogenic capabilities via activation of downstream intracellular factors such as pFAK/FAK and pERK/ERK. More interestingly, it was noted that the application of extrinsic biomechanical stimulation to the auxetic scaffolds further enhanced the proliferation and differentiation of hPDLs cells and secretion of osteogenic-related markers when compared to CS/FGelMa hydrogels without tensile stimulation. This prompted us to explore the related mechanism behind this interesting phenomenon. Subsequent studies showed that biomechanical stimulation works via YAP, which is a biomechanical cue. Taken together, our results showed that novel auxetic scaffolds could be fabricated by combining different aspects of science and technology, in order to improve the future chances of clinical applications for bone regeneration.