3D bioceramic scaffolds manufacturing and validation for cancer treatment

In recent years, tissue engineering is taking an increasingly important role in the attempt to restore the structural, anatomical, and mechanical integrity of several tissues and also to explore the use of new materials in the medical field. In bone tissue engineering (BTE) it is possible to use bioceramic materials to create new type of biocompatible and porous structures as the scaffolds. These have mechanical properties which are similar to those of the natural bone and they are able to recreate the microstructure of the bone due to the possibility to be shaped by 3D bio-printing with a certain level of porosity. In this work, a new bioceramic material (70S30C), with two different compositions, is used to realize scaffolds by stereolithography 3D bioprinting. The first mixture was obtained by adding to SiOC, derived from silicon resin and acrylic resin, calcium nitrate tetrahydrate (Ca(NO3)2(H2O)x) and surfactant, while the second by the addiction of fumed silica (FS) to the previous mixture. Different types of cells were used to demonstrate if the scaffold are biocompatible by checking cells adhesion and viability inside the bioceramic scaffold. Both cancer cells as Osteosarcomas cells (SaOs-2) and Neuroblastomas cells (SK-N-AS) and healthy cells were cultured on the bioceramic scaffold up to 21 days checking their morphology and vitability. Our main goal is the study of the photothermal effect related to this new bioceramic scaffold: in particular this material have the capability to heat up when irradiated by a surgent of IR waves. In this way, using this material capability we want to use these scaffolds to induce cancer cells death since the temperature would reach more than 50°C.