AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJB025320319
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Early Access

Suspended 3D printing of polycaprolactone/hydroxyapatite composites for mimicking complex structured bone scaffolds

Juhyun Kang1† Masoud Shirzad2† Priya Ranganathan2 Dageon Oh2 Sudip Mondal3 Junghwan Oh1, 2, 5 Hae Gyun Lim1, 2, 4 Mahdi Bodaghi5* Seung Yun Nam1, 2, 4*
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1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Republic of Korea
2 Industry 4.0 Convergence Bionics Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Republic of Korea
3 Digital Healthcare Research Center, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Republic of Korea
4 Major of Biomedical Engineering, Division of Smart Healthcare, College of Information Technology and Convergence, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Republic of Korea
5 Department of Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
†These authors contributed equally to this work.
Received: 8 August 2025 | Accepted: 1 September 2025 | Published online: 2 September 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s).. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Extrusion-based 3D printing has been rapidly advancing as a key technique for fabricating tissue engineering scaffolds. However, 3D printing complex structures with appropriate mechanical strength and biocompatibility remains a challenge. Suspended 3D printing is an emerging fabrication strategy that enables the creation of tissues or organs by a support medium that provides a stable printing environment without the need for additional support structures. This study presents a novel strategy for fabricating intricate scaffolds using suspended 3D printing of bioinks incorporating dissolved PCL (dPCL) and hydroxyapatite (HA). The optimized dPCL/HA bioink demonstrated up to an 85% reduction of print errors compared to conventional methods, significantly improving 3D printability. Moreover, mechanical assessments revealed a compressive Young's modulus approximately 50 MPa higher in dPCL/HA scaffolds than dPCL scaffolds. Furthermore, dPCL/HA scaffolds outperformed both PCL and dPCL scaffolds in cell proliferation tests. Complex 3D shapes, including helices, saddles, multi-curvature structures, hollow hemispheres, and zygomatic bones, were successfully 3D printed, demonstrating the ability to mimic natural and intricate anatomical structures of the human body. These approaches pave the way for 3D printing patient-specific and structurally robust bone constructs with enhanced mechanical and biological properties.

Keywords
Extrusion-based 3D printing
Suspended 3D printing
Bone tissue engineering
Biomimetic scaffolds
Composites
Funding
This research was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant (NRF-2021R1I1A3040459) funded by the Korean government (MOE). This research was supported by a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number: HI22C1323).
Conflict of interest
Seung Yun Nam serves as the Editorial Board Member of the journal, but did not in any way involve in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. Other authors declare they have no competing interests
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing