News Release

3D Bioprinting Breakthrough: Scientists create smart scaffold that mimics bone and cartilage for next-gen join repair

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory

3D Bioprinting Breakthrough: Scientists create smart scaffold that mimics bone and cartilage for next-gen join repair

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Schematic of 3D hybrid bioprinting process for osteochondral tissue

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Credit: Yaxin Wang, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

A research team from Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, Nanyang Technological University and the University of Manchester has developed hybrid 3D bioprinting method that could support the repair of complex joint injuries.

A smart, layered scaffold that mimics the body’s natural bone and cartilage structure, known as osteochondral (OC) tissue, has been developed using a combination of soft and hard printable materials. By incorporating soft hydrogel bioinks and hard bioceramic composite polymer, this innovative approach allows for the precise replication of OC tissue's structural and biofunctional properties, leading to improved mechanical integrity and enhanced cellular response. This study provides an advanced tissue engineering solution for OC repairment.

Challenge
OC repair remains a significant challenge due to its complex hierarchical structure, compromising cartilage, calcified cartilage, and subchondral bone. Traditional 3D bioprinting approaches struggle to achieve structural and functional integration, which is essential for long-term tissue regeneration. One of the major challenges is to maintain the mechanical stability, bioactivity of the construct, and, in particular, the chondrogenic phenotype of human chondrocytes (HCs). Moreover, the efficient integration between cartilage and subchondral bone regions remains an unmet need in OC scaffold design.

Solution
The team developed a novel hybrid 3D bioprinting strategy, allowing the fabrication of a triphasic 3D construct that mimics the full-thickness OC tissue. By using a hybrid bioprinting modality and combining gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA)-based bioinks and polycaprolactone/tricalcium phosphate (PCL/TCP), a calcified cartilage interface was fabricated, which ensures strong bonding and smooth transition between the engineered subchondral bone and cartilage layers. The encapsulated human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs) can be spatiotemporally released from the calcified cartilage layer, directional attached to, and differentiated into bone linage in the subchondral bone region. Moreover, the developed methacrylated methylcellulose (MCMA)/GelMA bioink, printed as a cartilage layer, exhibits enhanced HCs viability, proliferation, and chondrogenic phenotype maintenance. This approach not only strengthens the mechanical and biological properties of the construct but also sheds light on the future treatment of OC related diseases (e.g. Osteoarthritis).

Future
Future research will further optimise the biofabrication process and material formulations and the in vivo potential will be explored for clinical applications.
This novel hybrid 3D bioprinting approach enables the fabrication of structurally integrated and biofunctional heterogeneous OC constructs, showing a great potential for future OC related regenerative medicine applications.
The research has been recently published in the online edition of Materials Futures, a prominent international journal in the field of interdisciplinary materials science research.

Reference
Yaxin Wang, Yanhao Hou, Cian Vyas, Boyang Huang, Paulo Bartolo. An integrated hybrid 3D bioprinting of heterogeneous and zone-specific construct resembling structural and biofunctional properties of osteochondral tissue[J]. Materials Futures, 2025, 4(2): 025401. DOI: 10.1088/2752-5724/adb7f6


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