Effect of different dopants on porous calcium silicate composite bone scaffolds by 3D gel-printing

Abstract

Porous CaSiO3 composite scaffolds with different dopants, such as MgSiO3, MgCl2 and CaSO4, were successfully prepared by 3D gel-printing (3DGP). (m, n) is proposed to describe the filament geometry features. The results show that doping can improve the strength of porous composite scaffolds and MgCl2-doped composite scaffolds had the highest modulus of elasticity of 1241 MPa. The shrinkage rate range of the composite scaffolds was 11.44–13.16%, and their porosity was all about 60%. When porous composite scaffolds were soaked in SBF for 28 days at 37°С, the degradation rate was 2.7% (pure), 0.3% (MgSiO3), 0.2% (MgCl2), 5.27% (CaSO4), respectively. It explains that MgSiO3 and MgCl2 inhibited the in vitro degradation of CaSiO3, while CaSO4 promoted. It is obviously that doped MgCl2 can improve the mechanical properties of porous scaffolds, and doped CaSO4 can improve the degradation of scaffolds, which play an important role in bone repair engineering.