Bone regeneration using a microstereolithography-produced customized poly(propylene fumarate)/diethyl fumarate photopolymer 3D scaffold incorporating BMP-2 loaded PLGA microspheres

Bony defects have been three-dimensionally (3D) created in many clinical circumstances however many defects cannot be reconstructed because most of the current bony substitutes cannot provide the necessary exact 3D structure Therefore to overcome this limitation a 3D scaffold with embedded growth factor-delivering microspheres was developed by solid free-form fabrication (SFF) technology using computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) In this study BMP-2-loaded poly(DL-lactic-coglycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres were Incorporated into a 3D scaffold that was fabricated using a microstereolithography (MSTL) system with a suspension of microspheres and a poly(propylene fumarate) (PPF)/diethyl fumarate (DEF) photopolymer By measuring release profiles in vitro we verified that the fabricated microsphere-containing 3D scaffold could gradually release growth factor The effects of BMP-2 were also assessed in vitro by observing cell differentiation using MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts Finally we confirmed that SF scaffolds created by MSTL were superior to traditional scaffolds produced using a particulate leaching/gas foaming method In addition based on in vivo tests the scaffolds that released BMP-2 promoted bone formation Based on these results we concluded that our 3D scaffold might be a useful tool for enhancing reconstruction quality in many complex bony defects that should be reconstructed using a customized 3D scaffold (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved