Development, 3D printing and characterization of calcium sulfate based scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Clinic applications of bone tissue (BT) transplantation are used widely for treatment of large bone defects. In BT field, development of biomimetic bone tissue scaffolds which have appropriate chemical and mechanical properties for clinic applications is needed. Biomimetic bone tissue scaffolds should be used for bone grafts which are developed with tissue engineering approach to mimic extracellular matrix. Since bone have high percentage of hydroxyapatite, ceramic biomaterials have grand potential to be used as inorganic tissue scaffold. Literature shows that ceramic based scaffolds such as calcium sulphate, β-tricalcium phosphate and hydroxyapatite support cell attachment, can be resorbed by osteoclasts and also degradation rate of the ceramics are in accordance with bone regeneration rate. The most critical step is production of defect matching scaffold in on custom artificial bone applications. Therefore, powder based three dimensional (3D) printing become prominent because of the numerous advantages such as design independency and high controllability of inner and outer structure. Scaffolds were designed by using CAD programs and printed with CaSO4M.5H2O (calcium sulphate hemihydrate) powders by using 3D printing technology. Then mechanical and biological properties of the scaffolds were tested to investigate the usage potential of CaSO4.0.5H2O based 3D printed scaffolds in tissue engineering. Cytotoxicity results showed that 3D printed scaffolds provided a suitable environment for cell culture. As a result, usage of 3D printing technology in production of controllable scaffold production for artificial tissue development has an important potential.