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Elsevier, Acta Biomaterialia, 10(10), p. 4304-4313, 2014

DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2014.05.032

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The Osteoprint: A bioinspired two-photon polymerized 3-D structure for the enhancement of bone-like cell differentiation

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

The need of a better understanding of cell behavior and of exploiting cell functions for various healthcare applications has forced the biomedical research to the elaboration of increasingly complex fabrication strategies able to reproduce in vitro the real biological micro-environment. Different approaches have led to the development of refined examples of 2D and 3D structures able to sustain cellular proliferation, differentiation and functionality very similar to those normally occurring in living organisms. Among them, there is the two-photon polymerization. In this paper, we present a trabecula-like structure (that we named "Osteoprint") that resembles to the typical microenvironment of the trabecular bone cells. Starting from micro-tomography images of the trabecular bone, we prepared several Osteoprints through two-photon polymerization, and tested the behavior of SaOS-2 bone-like cells cultured on our structures. Interestingly, we found that Osteoprints deeply affect cellular behavior, determining an exit from the cell cycle and an enhancement of the osteogenic differentiation. Indeed, we found an up-regulation of genes involved in SaOS-2 cell maturation and in terms of hydroxyapatite production and accumulation upon SaOS-2 culture on the Osteoprints. The obtained findings are in our opinion extremely interesting, and open wide perspectives in "bio-inspired" approaches for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.