Conditioning of 3D Printed Nanoengineered Ionic–Covalent Entanglement Scaffolds with iP‐hMSCs Derived Matrix

Additive manufacturing is a promising method for producing customized 3D bioactive constructs for regenerative medicine. Here, 3D printed highly osteogenic scaffolds using nanoengineered ionic-covalent entanglement ink (NICE) for bone tissue engineering are reported. This NICE ink consists of ionic-covalent entanglement reinforced with Laponite, a 2D nanosilicate (nSi) clay, allowing for the printing of anatomic-sized constructs with high accuracy. The 3D printed structure is able to maintain high structural stability in physiological conditions without any significant swelling or deswelling. The presence of nSi imparts osteoinductive characteristics to the NICE scaffolds, which is further augmented by depositing pluripotent stem cell-derived extracellular matrix (ECM) on the scaffolds. This is achieved by stimulating human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymal stem cells (iP-hMSCs) with 2-chloro-5-nitrobenzanilide, a PPARgamma inhibitor that enhances Wnt pathway, resulting in the deposition of an ECM characterized by high levels of collagens VI and XII found in anabolic bone. The osteoinductive characteristics of these bioconditioned NICE (bNICE) scaffolds is demonstrated through osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow derived human mesenchymal stem cells. A significant increase in the expression of osteogenic gene markers as well as mineralized ECM are observed on bioconditioned NICE (bNICE) scaffolds compared to bare scaffolds (NICE). The bioconditioned 3D printed scaffolds provide a unique strategy to design personalized bone grafts for in situ bone regeneration.