Design and preparation of bone tissue engineering scaffolds with porous controllable structure

A novel method of designing and preparing bone tissue engineering scaffolds with controllable porous structure of both macro channels and micro pores was proposed. The CAD software UG NX3.0 was used to design the macro channels’ shape, size and distribution. By integrating rapid prototyping and traditional porogen technique, the macro channels and micro pores were formed respectively. The size, shape and quantity of micro pores were controlled by porogen particulates. The sintered β-TCP porous scaffolds possessed connective macro channels of approximately 500 μm and micro pores of 200–400 μm. The porosity and connectivity of micro pores became higher with the increase of porogen ratio, while the mechanical properties weakened. The average porosity and compressive strength of β-TCP scaffolds prepared with porogen ratio of 60wt% were 78.12% and 0.2983 MPa, respectively. The cells’ adhesion ratio of scaffolds was 67.43%. The ALP activity, OCN content and cells micro morphology indicated that cells grew and proliferated well on the scaffolds. Funded by the Postdoctor Science Fund of China (No. 20070410715) and Shanghai Excellent Youth Special Fund (No. 17014)