The combination of a 3D-Printed porous Ti–6Al–4V alloy scaffold and stem cell sheet technology for the construction of biomimetic engineered bone at an ectopic site

Cell sheet technology has been widely used in bone tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, controlling the shape and volume of large pieces of engineered bone tissue remains impossible without additional suitable scaffolds. Three-dimensional (3D) printed titanium (Ti) alloy scaffolds are mostly used as implant materials for repairing bone defects, but the unsatisfactory bioactivities of traditional Ti-based scaffolds severely limit their clinical applications. Herein, we hypothesize that the combination of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) sheet technology and 3D porous Ti–6Al–4V (PT) alloy scaffolds could be used to fabricate biomimetic engineered bone. First, various concentrations of BMSCs were directly cocultured with PT scaffolds to obtain complexes of osteoblastic cell sheets and scaffolds. Then, as an experimental control, an osteoblastic BMSC sheet was prepared by continuous culturing under osteogenic conditions for 2 weeks without passaging and used to wrap the scaffolds. The BMSC sheet was composed of several layers of extracellular matrix (ECM) and a mass of BMSCs. The BMSCs exhibited excellent adherent, proliferative and osteogenic potential when cocultured with PT scaffolds, which may be attributed to the ability of the 3D microstructure of scaffolds to facilitate the biological behaviors of cells, as confirmed by the in vitro results. Moreover, the presence of BMSCs and ECM increased the angiogenic potential of PT scaffolds by the secretion of VEGF. Micro-CT and histological analysis confirmed the in vivo formation of biomimetic engineered bone when the complex of cocultured BMSCs and PT scaffolds and the scaffolds wrapped by prepared BMSC sheets were implanted subcutaneously into nude mice. Therefore, the combination of BMSC sheet technology and 3D-printed PT scaffolds could be used to construct customized biomimetic engineered bone, offering a novel and promising strategy for the precise repair of bone defects.