Mario MONZON

Abstract

Biomedical application of polymeric-based composites containing piezoelectric ceramic additives

Ricardo Donate1, Rubén Paz1, Rocío Moriche2, María Jesús Sayagués3, Pablo Bordón1, Mario Monzón1,*

1Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Grupo de Investigación en Fabricación Integrada y Avanzada, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Campus Universitario de Tafira, 35017 Las Palmas, Spain

2Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada, Facultad de Física, Universidad de Sevilla-ICMS, Avda. Reina Mercedes, s/n, 41012, Sevilla, Spain

3Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Sevilla (ICMS), CSIC-US, Américo Vespucio, 49, 41092, Sevilla, Spain

* Corresponding author. E-mail: mario.monzon@ulpgc.es

The available strategies in Tissue Engineering (TE) to treat osseous diseases (i.e., osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, etc.) depend on the functionality of the biomaterials used and their processability through different manufacturing techniques. Innovative piezoelectric composite materials based on polymers have gained attention recently to improve bone regeneration, as they can be processed by additive manufacturing (AM) to produce piezoelectric scaffolds able to direct and positively affect the growth of new tissue via the mechanotransduction process. Biomaterials containing lead-free piezoceramic nanoparticles with perovskite structure are of special interest, since they have shown the best piezoelectric coefficient values [1], a good biological response [2], and no inherent toxicity. In order to activate the piezoelectric effect of the composite materials developed, different mechanical stimuli can be applied, the most used being ultrasound and shear stress (due to perfusion flow).

A study case is presented here, in which composite scaffolds based on polylactic acid (PLA) and containing barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanoparticles were manufactured by material extrusion AM. Scaffolds intended for bone tissue regeneration were produced with a composition of up to 35% w/w piezoelectric filler. Additionally, an experimental setup has been designed for ultrasound stimulation of the composite samples during in vitro testing. Promising cell viability results were obtained in preliminary tests of the PLA/BT scaffolds under ultrasound treatment.

Acknowledgement

This contribution is part of the project PID 117648RB I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Also, the authors want to thank the support of the Erasmus + project NTA (KA220-VET-CB68D40C)

References 

[1] Y. Saito, H. Takao, T. Tani, T. Nonoyama, K. Takatori, T. Homma, et al., Lead-free piezoceramics, Nat 84 (2004) 432.

[2] Y. Li, X. Dai, Y. Bai, Y. Liu, Y. Wang, O. Liu, et al., Electroactive BaTiO3 nanoparticle-functionalized fibrous scaffolds enhance osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells, Int. J. Nanomed. 12 (2017) 4007–4018.