Enhancing bioactivity of 3D-printed porous scaffolds with self-assembling peptide hydrogels for cartilage tissue engineering

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Background Cartilage repair is challenging due to the tissue's limited regenerative capacity. Synthetic 3D-printed scaffolds provide essential structural support, but typically lack the bioactivity needed for cell integration. A promising approach combines 3D-printed porous scaffolds filled with self-assembling peptide hydrogels, which serve as nanofiber scaffolds inside the macropores of the structural scaffold, creating a hybrid structure. Methods The selection strategy for the 3D printing of the synthetic scaffolds was driven by two distinct cross-linking processes: a vinyl-ester based thiol-ene photopolymer crosslinked via free radical polymerization and printed with digital light processing, resulting in a stiff mechanical network and polydimethylsiloxane, namely AMSil™ 20503-50 from the AMSil™ 20,503 series, printed via liquid deposition modeling and crosslinked through polyaddition, which yields flexible scaffolds capable of adapting to dynamic mechanical environments. These properties make them suitable for load-bearing applications where structural integrity is paramount. Both 3D-printed scaffold types, characterized by interconnected macropores ranging from 0.8 to 1.2 mm, were augmented with a peptide hydrogel scaffold, such as RADA16 and IEIK13, that self-assembles inside the macropores to create a nanofiber network mimicking the extracellular matrix and enhancing bi

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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