title: Porous ceramic bone scaffolds for vascularized bone tissue regeneration.
abstract: Hydroxyapatite scaffolds with a multi modal porosity designed for use in tissue engineering of vascularized bone graft substitutes were prepared by three dimensional printing. Depending on the ratio of coarse (mean particle size 50 microm) to fine powder (mean particle size 4 microm) in the powder granulate and the sintering temperature total porosity was varied from 30% to 64%. While macroscopic pore channels with a diameter of 1 mm were created by CAD design, porosity structure in the sintered solid phase was governed by the granulate structure of the printing powder. Scaffolds sintered at 1,250 degrees C were characterized by a bimodal pore structure with intragranular pores of 0.3-0.4 microm and intergranular pores of 20 microm whereas scaffolds sintered at 1,400 degrees C exhibit a monomodal porosity with a maximum of pore size distribution at 10-20 microm. For in-vivo testing, matrices were implanted subcutaneously in four male Lewis rats. Scaffolds with 50% porosity and an average pore size of approximately 18 microm were successfully transferred to rats and vascularized within 4 weeks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science (Glass and Ceramics), University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Martensstr. 5, 91058 Erlangen, Germany. Julia.will@ww.uni.-erlangen.de
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Will
authors.forename: Reinhold
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Melcher
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Treul
authors.forename: Nahum
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Travitzky
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kneser
authors.forename: Elias
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Polykandriotis
authors.forename: Raymund
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Horch
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Greil
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001861:Bone Regeneration; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000098:blood supply*; D002516:Ceramics; D008297:Male; D016062:Porosity; D011208:Powders; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew
chemical_list: D011208:Powders