The design of bioactive scaffolds with improved mechanical and biological properties is an important topic of research. This paper investigates the use of polymer-ceramic composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Different ceramic materials (hydroxyapatite (HA) and β-tri-calcium phosphate (TCP)) were mixed with poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL). Scaffolds with different material compositions were produced using an extrusion-based additive manufacturing system. The produced scaffolds were physically and chemically assessed, considering mechanical, wettability, scanning electron microscopy and thermal gravimetric tests. Cell viability, attachment and proliferation tests were performed using human adipose derived stem cells (hADSCs). Results show that scaffolds containing HA present better biological properties and TCP scaffolds present improved mechanical properties. It was also possible to observe that the addition of ceramic particles had no effect on the wettability of the scaffolds.

No abstract

No abstract

Biomanufacturing is a relatively new research domain focusing on the use of additive manufacturing technologies, biomaterials, cells and biomolecular signals to produce tissue constructs for tissue engineering. For bone regeneration, researchers are focusing on the use of polymeric and polymer/ceramic scaffolds seeded with osteoblasts or mesenchymal stem cells. However, high-performance scaffolds in terms of mechanical, cell-stimulation and biological performance is still required. This paper investigates the use of an extrusion additive manufacturing system to produce poly( -caprolactone) (PCL), PCL/graphene nanosheet and PCL carbon nanotube (CNT) scaffolds for bone applications. Scaffolds with regular and reproducible architecture and uniform dispersion of carbon materials were produced and evaluated in terms of carbon material concentration and biological performance. Results suggest that the addition of both graphene and CNT can improve the biological performance of the scaffolds, while graphene presented better enhancement effect than CNT.

No abstract

Aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes with nanohydroxyapatite in a 3D printed polycaprolactone scaffold stimulates osteogenic differentiation.

No abstract

The fabrication of optimized scaffolds for bone regeneration requires complex physical and biological requirements, which strongly depend on the processing conditions and the material morphological development during the fabrication process. This paper presents an extensive rheological characterization of polymer/ceramic blends commonly used for the fabrication of bone scaffolds through additive manufacturing. Poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL)/hydroxyapatite (HA) and PCL/tri-calcium phosphate (TCP) blends with different ceramic contents (5, 10 and 20 wt %) were prepared using melt blending and studied using rotational and oscillation rheological tests. Results show that all samples present a shearthinning behavior making them suitable for additive manufacturing. All samples present a viscoelastic behaviour with significantly high viscous modulus than elastic modulus at low frequencies. Both modulus increases with the addition of ceramic particles. Results also show that PCL/HA samples present high elastic modulus than PCL/TCP.