*Article* **3D Printed Wavy Sca** ff**olds Enhance Mesenchymal Stem Cell Osteogenesis**

**Shen Ji 1 and Murat Guvendiren 1,2,\***


Received: 22 November 2019; Accepted: 21 December 2019; Published: 25 December 2019

**Abstract:** There is a growing interest in developing 3D porous sca ffolds with tunable architectures for bone tissue engineering. Surface topography has been shown to control stem cell behavior including di fferentiation. In this study, we printed 3D porous sca ffolds with wavy or linear patterns to investigate the e ffect of wavy sca ffold architecture on human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) osteogenesis. Five distinct wavy sca ffolds were designed using sinusoidal waveforms with varying wavelengths and amplitudes, and orthogonal sca ffolds were designed using linear patterns. We found that hMSCs attached to wavy patterns, spread by taking the shape of the curvatures presented by the wavy patterns, exhibited an elongated shape and mature focal adhesion points, and di fferentiated into the osteogenic lineage. When compared to orthogonal sca ffolds, hMSCs on wavy sca ffolds showed significantly enhanced osteogenesis, indicated by higher calcium deposition, alkaline phosphatase activity, and osteocalcin staining. This study aids in the development of 3D sca ffolds with novel architectures to direct stem osteogenesis for bone tissue engineering.

**Keywords:** biomaterials; additive manufacturing; stem cells; tissue engineering; bone regeneration
