Natural wollastonite fiber simultaneously enhanced the mechanical, degradation, and biological performance of 3D printed polylactic acid bone scaffold

Abstract Polylactic acid (PLA) has been widely utilized in the development of bone scaffolds. However, it is still constrained by issues, such as limited mechanical strength, slow degradation rate, low bioactivity, and suboptimal cell responses. In this study, a natural bioceramic fiber—wollastonite fiber (WF)—was incorporated into PLA matrix, and PLA/WF composite scaffolds were fabricated via fused modeling deposition (FDM) 3D printing. The results indicated that the mechanical properties of PLA/WF scaffolds initially enhanced with WF content, reaching optimal tensile and compressive strength at 2.5 wt%, which were 32.78% and 25.80% higher, respectively, than those of pure PLA. The enhancement in mechanical properties was ascribed to the fiber reinforcement effect of WF, including fiber breakage and separation mechanisms. Furthermore, the incorporation of WF significantly accelerated the scaffold degradation, attributed to the formation of microvoids and a locally weak alkaline microenvironment due to the dissolvement of WF. Additionally, the release of Si and Ca ions from WF stimulated apatite formation and development, enhancing the biomineralization of PLA. Moreover, the incorporation of WF improved cellular response and osteogenic differentiation on the PLA. These findings prove that WF is a promising filler for simultaneously enhancing the mechanical, degradation, and biological performance of biodegradable polymer scaffolds for bone tissue engineering (BTE) applications. Highlights FDM 3D‐printed PLA/WF scaffolds showed orthogonal periodic ordered porous structure. WF enhanced the mechanical properties of PLA scaffolds through fiber reinforcement effect. WF accelerated the degradation of PLA scaffolds and released inorganic ion. WF promoted the cell responses on PLA scaffolds through changing the surface properties.