Carbon nanotube bacterial cellulose polycaprolactone scaffolds for bone tissue engineering using top-heating fused deposition three-dimensional printing.

Mandibular bone defects are a common clinical challenge for oral surgeons, and extensive research has been dedicated to developing bone scaffold substitutes. 3D printing is a common strategy for constructing personalized scaffolds to treat mandibular defects. Carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and bacterial cellulose (BC) were used to construct composites with 0, 0.25, 0.5, and 1 wt% gradients. Based on physicochemical properties, bioactivity, and osteogenic performance, 1 wt% MWCNT@BC was selected as the optimal filler for polycaprolactone (PCL). A novel top-heating 3D printing method was employed to construct a bone tissue engineering scaffold that exhibited a suitable scaffold morphology and enhanced mechanical properties, with a compressive strength reaching 85.99 ± 10.03 MPa. Cellular experiments demonstrated that the scaffold possessed good biocompatibility, cell adhesion properties, and effective osteoinductive performance. This was corroborated by a rat mandibular defect model that showed excellent biocompatibility and mandibular repair capabilities in vivo. In conclusion, this study addressed the previously unexplored impact of determined dispersion levels of MWCNTs on BC when used as a filler in PCL to ultimately offer new insights into their functional and regenerative potential. Furthermore, we established a novel three-dimensional (3D) printed bone tissue engineering scaffold, offering a new approach for the clinical treatment of mandibular bone defects.