NIR-Responsive Deployable and Self-Fitting 4D-Printed Bone Tissue Scaffold

The treatment of irregular-shaped and critical-sized bone defects poses a clinical challenge. Deployable, self-fitting tissue scaffolds that can be implanted by minimally invasive procedures are a promising solution. Toward this, we fabricated NIR-responsive and programmable polylactide-co-trimethylene carbonate (PLMC) scaffolds nanoengineered with polydopamine nanoparticles (PDA) by extrusion-based three-dimensional (3D) printing. The 3D-printed scaffolds demonstrated excellent (>99%), fast (under 30 s), and tunable shape recovery under NIR irradiation. PLMC-PDA composites demonstrated significantly higher osteogenic potential