Mimicking the Osteosarcoma Bone Microenvironment Using MEW-Printed PCL Scaffolds.

Authors

Chen Ye, Sabine Schulze, Richard Frank Richter, Max von Witzleben, Anne Weidlich, Hagen Fritzsche, Klaus-Dieter Schaser

Published in

Macromolecular bioscience. Volume 26. Issue 7. Pages e70224.

Abstract

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumor, typically affecting children and adolescents during rapid growth periods. With current treatments, the five-year survival rate for metastatic or recurrent cases remains only 20-30%, highlighting the need for new therapeutic approaches and better preclinical models. Our goal is to simulate the osteosarcoma bone microenvironment using melt electrowriting (MEW)-printed polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds with optimized calcium phosphate formation. To achieve this, we fabricated PCL scaffolds with distinct MEW micro-architectures, including rectangular, triangular, and hexagonal designs with comparable primary fiber spacing, and investigated two calcium phosphate formation methods: natural cell-generated mineralization and direct calcium phosphate cement coating. Using SaOS-2 osteosarcoma cells, we systematically evaluated cell behavior, mineralization dynamics, and scaffold mechanical properties. This approach aims to establish a biomimetic 3D model that bridges the gap between laboratory findings and clinical applications, enabling more pathophysiologically relevant drug testing platforms.

PMID:
42471746
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 19 Jul 2026.

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