Biomimicking Hybrid Scaffold Consisting of Compact and Spongy Bone Structure Using Gelatin/α-Tricalcium Phosphate via 3D-Printing and Electrohydrodynamic Jetting Processes

Biomimicking the structure and composition of natural tissues is a broad and essential method in bioengineering for tissue regeneration because cells can be affected by the surrounding structural and biochemical circumstances. In other words, cells can effectively proliferate and differentiate in natural-tissue-emulated environments. Therefore, study of the structure and composition of the natural tissues is important to biomimic them for fabrication of tissue-engineered structure. Bone tissue is generally known to have two-layered structure, compact bone, the outer part of bone, and spongy bone, the inner part of bone. These two parts of bone tissue are divided by their mechanical strengths, structures, and components. In this study, we fabricated the hybrid structure using gelatin/ceramic-printing (compact bone) and poly(ε-caprolactone)/ceramic-electrohydrodynamic jetting (EHDJ) process (spongy), respectively. Each structured scaffold has shown reasonable biocompatible and osteogenic properties. This biomimetic hybrid structure can be a promising biomaterial for regenerating bone structure.