Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a new method for the fabrication of artificial bone scaffolds that can assess important pore design factors such as porosity and their role in new bone formation. Their method's capablities for in vivo control of different scale porosities could lead to more flexible, efficient design of bone scaffolds used for regeneration of bone tissue lost to disease or injury.

Using a fabrication method of robotic deposition, the researchers modified it to precisely control ink flow, enabling the fabrication of scaffolds with multiple materials in a single scaffold and with multiple length scales of porosity. This method could play an important role in the drive to create artificial bone replacements that can serve to seed new tissue growth and obviate the need for bone harvesting. In order to create the scaffolds, the researchers used a nozzle-based solid freeform fabrication (SFF) system as the manufacturing platform because the method enables strict control of the macrostructure, while at the same time integrating multiple materials with different microstructures or chemistries.

Amy Wagoner Johnson, an assistant professor of mechanical science and engineering at the University of Illinois, and a co-author of this research, said the calcium phosphate ceramics used in the method are already used as fillers for small defects and coatings for dental and orthopedic implants, but “to our knowledge, there is nothing on the market that allows for such flexibility in scaffold characteristics as what we have shown here.” More work and testing needs to be done toward future clinical applications, but the researchers wrote that the first step in has been taken: ““Three unique scaffolds are produced from a single training routine, displaying that the designed manufacturing workflow is efficient and flexible. Importantly, the capabilities displayed here can be applied to even more complex scaffolds. With the ability to strictly control the placement of dissimilar materials comes the ability to functionalize bone scaffolds.”

Also: Learn how Fast Ceramics Production technology is used to create patient-specific bone substitutes and implants.