Rapid prototyping technology and its application in bone tissue engineering

Abstract

Bone defects arising from a variety of reasons cannot be treated effectively without bone tissue reconstruction. Autografts and allografts have been used in clinical application for some time, but they have disadvantages. With the inherent drawback in the precision and reproducibility of conventional scaffold fabrication techniques, the results of bone surgery may not be ideal. This is despite the introduction of bone tissue engineering which provides a powerful approach for bone repair. Rapid prototyping technologies have emerged as an alternative and have been widely used in bone tissue engineering, enhancing bone tissue regeneration in terms of mechanical strength, pore geometry, and bioactive factors, and overcoming some of the disadvantages of conventional technologies. This review focuses on the basic principles and characteristics of various fabrication technologies, such as stereolithography, selective laser sintering, and fused deposition modeling, and reviews the application of rapid prototyping techniques to scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. In the near future, the use of scaffolds for bone tissue engineering prepared by rapid prototyping technology might be an effective therapeutic strategy for bone defects.

In vitro and in vivo biocompatibility of calcium‐phosphate scaffolds three‐dimensional printed by stereolithography for bone regeneration

“…In vivo investigations of SLA 3D printed bioceramics in terms of biocompatibility and bone formation performances have been reported in several reviews (Kim et al, 2010;Melchels, Feijen, & Grijpma, 2010;Skoog, Goering, & Narayan, 2014;Velasco, Narváez-Tovar, & Garzón-Alvarado, 2015;Yuan, Zhou, & Chen, 2017).…”

Solvent-Free Approaches for the Processing of Scaffolds in Regenerative Medicine

“…Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is a mature additive manufacturing technology with broad application range and a high throughput/cost ratio [20,21]. FDM technology is simple, flexible, and does not usually require post-printing processes unless support material removal or polishing are needed [21,22]. Thermoplastic compounds in filament or powder forms are used as starting material and are molten and extruded through a high-temperature nozzle onto an x-y-z platform (Figure 2a).…”

Advances in three‐dimensional bioprinting of bone: Progress and challenges

“…SLA‐based 3D geometric patterns of PEGDA, nHA, and cell‐adhesive motifs were printed and cultured with hMSCs to develop a functional bone graft favourable for promoting osteogenic differentiation in vitro (Zhou et al, ). Owing to the emergence of microstereolithography (MSTL), complex structures with nearly 20μm precision could be printed (Yuan, Zhou, & Chen, ). Using this technique, Lee et al () developed bone scaffolds with pore sizes in the range of 300–350 μm and high interconnectivity by combining polypropylene fumarate (PPO) and BMP‐2‐loaded polylactide‐co‐glycolide microspheres (Lee et al, ).…”

“…SLA-based 3D geometric patterns of PEGDA, nHA, and cell-adhesive motifs were printed and cultured with hMSCs to develop a functional bone graft favourable for promoting osteogenic differentiation in vitro . Owing to the emergence of microstereolithography (MSTL), complex structures with nearly 20μm precision could be printed (Yuan, Zhou, & Chen, 2017).…”