Hydroxyapatite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering made by 3D printing

Nowadays, there is a significant need for synthetic bone replacement materials used in bone tissue engineering (BTE). Rapid prototyping and especially 3D printing is a suitable technique to create custom implants based on medical data sets. 3D printing allows to fabricate scaffolds based on Hydroxyapatite with complex internal structures and high resolution. To determine the in vitro behaviour of cells cultivated on the scaffolds, we designed a special test-part. MC3T3-E1 cells were seeded on the scaffolds and cultivated under static and dynamic setups. Histological evaluation was carried out to characterise the cell ingrowth. In summary, the dynamic cultivation method lead to a stronger population compared to the static cultivation method. The cells proliferated deep into the structure forming close contact to Hydroxyapatite granules. (C) 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.