Enhancement fidelity of Kagome scaffold for bone regeneration by design for additive manufacturing

Abstract

In this study, we narrowly define the fidelity of additive manufacturing (AM) as the reliability of the morphology and mechanical properties of the fabricated structure. The structural design and fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) printed scaffolds produced using an extrusion technique for bone regeneration are actively studied with respect to their fidelity. However, fabricating an ideal design using an extrusion technique is difficult because of its intrinsic limitations in tissue engineering, such as those regarding resolution, manufacturing error, and printability. Among them, manufacturing errors and printability are partially or totally determined by the design complexity. Therefore, in extrusion-type AM, the design should be established considering the abovementioned limitations. In this study, the AM fidelity of a 3D Kagome scaffold was improved using design for additive manufacturing (DfAM). Consequently, the compressive stiffness was enhanced compared to that achieved in our previous study. Specifically, the compressive stiffness was improved to 95.2% of the computational analysis result, which is the maximum ideal value. In addition, the DfAM did not affect cell proliferation, showing that it can ensure the fabrication fidelity of 3D Kagome scaffolds without losing cell culturing characteristics.