Microsphere-based selective laser sintering for building macroporous bone scaffolds with controlled microstructure and excellent biocompatibility

Abstract

Fabrication of bulk biomaterials with controlled structures and excellent properties is increasingly important in tissue engineering, but remains a major challenge in the current stage. Herein we used selective laser sintering (SLS) to construct a series of three-dimensional (3D) bone scaffolds with uniform multi-scaled porosity, moderate mechanical properties as well as good biocompatibility. As starting architectural units for SLS, the pure microspheres of polycaprolactone (PCL) and the composite microspheres of PCL and hydroxyapatite (HA) were firstly synthesized via a modified solvent evaporation method, respectively. Our findings showed that the as-prepared microspheres exhibited the uniform size and monodispersity. Moreover, the microsphere-based 3D scaffolds generated by SLS technique showed a multi-scaled porous structure, and adequate mechanical features. Both in vitro and in vivo evaluations further demonstrated that the resultant SLS-derived scaffolds can not only manipulate multiple stem cell behaviors including promoting cell adhesion, supporting cell proliferation and inducing cell differentiation in vitro, but also showed an excellent histocompatibility and induced the vascularization of newly formed tissue in vivo. Consequently, our current study suggests a feasible and effective protocol for fabricating new biomimetic bone biomaterials via SLS technique, also paves a new way for other bulk biomaterials.