3D Printing of Antibacterial, Biocompatible, and Biomimetic Hybrid Aerogel-Based Scaffolds with Hierarchical Porosities via Integrating Antibacterial Peptide-Modified Silk Fibroin with Silica Nanostructure

Scaffold-mediated tissue engineering has become a golden solution for the regeneration of damaged bone tissues that lack self-regeneration capability. A successful scaffold in bone tissue engineering comprises a multitude of suitable biological, microarchitectural, and mechanical properties acting as different signaling cues for the cells to mediate the new tissue formation. Therefore, careful design of bioactive scaffold macro- and microstructures in multiple length scales and biophysical properties fulfilling the tissue repair demands are necessary yet challenging to achieve. Herein, we have developed an antibacterial and biocompatible silica-silk fibroin (SF) gel-based ink through novel yet simple chemical approaches of sol–gel and self-assembly followed by processing the obtained gels as three-dimensional (3D) hybrid aerogel-based scaffolds exploiting the advanced materials design approaches of micro-extrusion-based 3D printing, and directional freeze-casting/drying approaches. As the main constituent of the hybrid biocompatible scaffold of this study, we used the SF extracted from Bombyx mori silkworm cocoon. However, to increase the cell responsivity and bactericidal efficiency of the final scaffold, thiol-ended antimicrobial and cell adhesive peptide sequence (SH-CM-RGD) was conjugated to silica-SF hybrid gels via covalent attachment using a spacer molecule through either preprint (prior to sol–gel) or during the post-printing steps on the previously printed silica-SF gel. In the next step, the hybrid Silica-SF-CM-RGD hydrogel ink was 3D-printed into the construct with interconnected porous structure with hierarchically organized porosity and a combination of several promising properties. Namely, due to the covalent linkage of the antibacterial peptide to the SF, the scaffold shows potent bactericidal efficiency toward Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Moreover, nanostructured silica components in the 3D-printed composites could intertwine with SF-CM-RGD to support the mechanical properties in the final scaffold and the final osteoconductivity of the scaffold. This study supports the promising properties of 3D-printed silica-SF-based hybrid aerogels constructs for repairing bone defect.