Development of Super-Paramagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticle Coated Melt Electrowritten Scaffolds for Biomedical Applications.

Polycaprolactone (PCL) is usually the material chosen for melt electrowriting (MEW) due to its biocompatibility, mechanical strength, and melt processability. This work first investigated the effect of different processing parameters to obtain optimum PCL-MEW scaffolds. Secondly, to increase PCL`s hydrophilicity, cell affinity and to enable coating with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and silica-coated SPIONs (Si-SPIONs), the scaffolds were modified with alkaline surface treatment. Finally, SPIONs and Si-SPIONs were successfully coated on MEW scaffolds. Results showed that a reproducible, layered micro-ranged scaffold was fabricated. Additionally, the alkaline treatment did not change the 3D morphology of scaffolds while reducing the fiber diameter. Furthermore, SEM images and ATR-FTIR results confirmed that SPIONs and Si-SPIONs coated on MEW scaffolds. A cytocompatibility assay showed a non-toxic effect on MG-63 osteoblast-like cell viability in all the scaffolds. Additionally, higher MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblastic cell adhesion efficiency and proliferation were achieved for the alkaline-treated scaffolds and SPIONs/Si-SPIONs-coated scaffolds. Moreover, all the samples demonstrated the ability to generate heat, useful for hyperthermia treatment, when subjected to an alternating magnetic field. Overall, the findings suggested that the strategy of coating MEW PCL scaffolds with SPIONs/Si-SPIONs has the potential to improve scaffolds performance for biomedical applications, especially for producing magnetically responsive MEW scaffolds. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.