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ORIGINAL RESEARCH

3D-printed scaffolds co-doped with magnesium oxide and niobium for enhanced in vitro osteogenesis

Yongning Sheng1 ,  Jie Pei2 ,  Kai Chen3 ,  Yanxin Liu4* ,  Zeyu Liu1,5* ,  Kun Fu1,6*
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1 Department of Joint Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, Hainan, China
2 Department of Orthopedics, Haikou People’s Hospital, Haikou, Hainan, China
3 Department of Orthopedics, Wenchang People’s Hospital, Wenchang, Hainan, China
4 Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
5 Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
6 Department of Joint Surgery, Hainan Sino-German Orthopedic Hospital, Haikou, Hainan, China
BMT, 229 https://doi.org/10.12336/bmt.25.00229
Submitted: 15 November 2025 | Revised: 13 January 2026 | Accepted: 12 February 2026 | Published: 31 March 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). Licensee Biomaterials Translational, USA. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en)
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Abstract

Conventional three-dimensional (3D)-printed bone scaffolds often lack adequate mechanical strength and osteoinductive cues. Here, biphasic magnesium oxide/niobium (MgO/Nb) co-doped scaffolds were fabricated by fused deposition modeling using a poly(L-lactic acid)/calcium carbonate/hydroxyapatite matrix, and the MgO:Nb ratio was systematically optimized. MgO/Nb incorporation improved compressive strength relative to MgO/Nb-free controls while maintaining the printed porous architecture. In MC3T3-E1 cultures, scaffolds containing 5 wt% MgO–Nb elicited the most favorable osteogenic responses, including enhanced proliferation, increased alkaline phosphatase activity during early differentiation, and greater mineral deposition assessed by Alizarin Red S staining. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction at day 14 further showed upregulated Col1a1 (encoding type I collagen), Bglap (encoding osteocalcin), and Runx2 (encoding RUNX-2) expression, indicating promoted osteogenic differentiation. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that MgO/Nb biphasic co-doping provides a scalable route to enhance both mechanical performance and in vitro osteogenesis of 3D-printed composite scaffolds, supporting further in vivo validation for bone regeneration.

Keywords
Osteogenic scaffolds
Magnesium oxide
Niobium
Osteoblasts
Biocompatible materials
Funding
This work was supported by the Hainan Provincial Health Science and Technology Innovation Joint Project (grant number: WSJK2024MS228).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest for the present work.
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