Fabrication of ZnO-loaded, polycaprolactone -based, antibacterial 3D scaffolds for bone tissue engineering using melt-electrowriting

• MEW creates highly porous 3D composite tissue engineering scaffolds. • ZnO NPs were successfully incorporated into MEW PCL as antibacterial constructs. • The fabricated composite construct has good cytotoxicity properties. • Uniform dispersion of ZnO NPs in the outer shell of the fibres inhibits bacterial attachment. The potential of melt-electrowriting (MEW) to fabricate highly porous 3D composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering (BTE) with antibacterial properties was explored. Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) were loaded into biodegradable medical grade Polycaprolactone (PCL) loaded with 10 wt% hydroxyapatite (HA) NPs to create antibacterial constructs by the MEW technique. The constructs’ morphology, chemical, thermal and mechanical properties, osteoblasts cell viability and bacterial attachment were investigated. Our results demonstrate a unique homogeneous dispersion of ZnO-HA NPs in the outer shell of the fabricated composite fibres by MEW, leading to significant inhibition of bacterial attachment against microorganisms while retaining osteoiblast viability. This novel composite MEW 3D scaffolds yielded promising multifunctional constructs with high potential in BTE.