Synthesis of bioceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering by rapid prototyping technique

This study presents a novel rapid prototyping process to fabricate silicate/hydroxyapatite (HA) bone scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. The HA particles are embedded in the gelled silica matrix to form a green part of bioceramic bone scaffold after processing by selective laser sintering. The composition of the bioceramic scaffold is in the series of SiO₂·P₂O₅·CaO. Results indicate that the proposed process could fabricate a multilayer hollow shell structure with brittle property but sufficient integrity for handling prior to post-processing. The fabricated bone scaffold models had a surface finish of 25 μm, a dimensional shrinkage of 16 %, a maximum bending strength of 4.7 MPa, and an apparent porosity of 28 % under the laser energy density of 1.5 J/mm². In vitro bioactivity evaluation by optical density value using a microculture tetrazolium test assay revealed that the bioceramic bone scaffolds were suitable for cell culture, demonstrating their application in tissue engineering.