Fabrication of Solid Freeform Fabrication based 3D Scaffold and Its In-Vitro Characteristic Evaluation for Bone Tissue Engineering

Tissue engineering is an emerging technique which has the potential to regenerate and repair damaged tissues or organs. In this paper, three-dimensional (3D) scaffold fabricated by solid freeform fabrication (SFF) technology and its mechanical property and cell adhesion characteristic were described. Polymer deposition system (PDS), which can dispense biodegradable polymers such as polycaprolactone (PCL) and poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), was developed to fabricate a 3D scaffold for tissue engineering. In this study, PCL, PLGA, and blended PCL/PLGA were used as scaffolding materials. The dispensing conditions for each polymer were investigated using single-line test. Based on the result of single-line test, 3D scaffolds with fully interconnected 600 im pores were successfully fabricated by the PDS. Overall size of the scaffold was fixed at 25 (-)10 pound (-)4 pound mm which was targeted for application to spine regeneration. Effect of PCL, PLGA, and blended PCL/PLGA on compressive mechanical property of scaffolds was analyzed. In addition, in vitro cell interactions of scaffolds on MC3T3-E1 cells were evaluated using cell counting kit assay.