Fabrication of artificial bioactive bone using rapid prototyping

A new technique based on rapid prototyping (RP) is proposed to fabricate the mould of artificial bone composed of. a nontoxic soluble material. The mould has both an external structure that exactly coincides with the replaced natural bone and an internal 3D scaffolds simulating the bone microtubule structure. By injecting self-setting calcium phosphate cement (CPC) with bone morphogenetic protein (BMP, a kind of bone growth factors) into the cavities of the mould, the CPC solidified and the micropores can be formed after the internal 3D scaffolds is dissolved, finally the artificial bioactive bone can be produced. This approach is better than the traditional fabrication process, which the latter method cannot fabricate an artificial bone with inter-connective micropores so as to realize the osteo-induction for lack of bioactivity. Through animal experiments, it shows that the simulated inter-structure could provide artificial bone with proper voids for the growth of the bone tissue and the quick activation, and hence effectively speed up the bone growth by means of activating osteo-conduction and osteo-induction. So, the new method of fabricating artificial bone with biological behaviors is justified.