Developing a novel biocomposite on selective laser sintering for tissue engineering

Abstract

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is used to fabricate tissue engineering scaffold due to its versatility in processing various polymeric materials and good stability of its products. Propriety SLS materials are non-biocompatible as they were conventionally invented for production of industrial parts. Suitable biomaterial powders that can be processed in SLS without allowing damages on the material properties need to be identified. A theoretical study based on heat transfer phenomena during SLS process was carried out to identify the significant biomaterial and laser beam properties that influence the sintering result. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and hydroxyapatite (HA) were identified as elements for the biocomposite. The most prominent sintering results were obtained by mechanical mixing of as-received PVA and HA powder, which yielded homogenous biocomposite powders with good repeatability. Characterization studies found that chemical composition of PVA as the scaffold matrix was not affected during the sintering process. PVA/HA (5 vol.% HA) scaffolds gave compression stress and compression modulus up to 2.26 MPa and 8.30 MPa, respectively, which is suitable for application in the craniomaxillofacial skeleton area. Cell culture study using osteoblast-like Saos-2 cells found that cell proliferation was favourable on the SLS fabricated scaffold.