<i>In Vitro</i> Analysis of Hydroxyapatite Coated Bio-Additive Manufactured Implant

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) - is a technology that fabricates the parts directly from 3D CAD model without the need of any process planning. The convergence of AM and life science has evolved into a new paradigm called Bio-Additive Manufacturing (BAM). In this paper, Hydroxyapatite (HA) powder was coated over the customized implant, which will serve as a good candidate for bone substitutes due to its chemical and structural similarity to bone. Computer Tomography (CT) scan data of human tibia bone was collected and stacked in MIMICS image processing software, which converts it into 3D data, then implant was fabricated using Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), an AM technique with polyamide powder. Hydroxyapatite powder was synthesized by wet chemical process and coated over implant using plasma spray coating machine. This coating will produce an intermediate region between the bone and the implant, which will stimulate the tissue growth and bone contact. Micrograph of coated and uncoated implant was analyzed using SEM and EDX. For In-Vitro study human mesenchymal cell was cultured over the coated implant. The viability and proliferation of the cells was studied by examining the morphology of the cell. Thus the implant was fabricated using SLS technique and coated with hydroxyapatite powder which exhibits a favorable and good response to enhance tissue growth.