Fabrication of polycaprolactone and polylactic acid shapeless scaffolds via fused deposition modelling technology

The porous scaffold provides a temporary environment for bone growth and facilitates cell adhesion, cell growth and differentiation. In the present study, polymeric scaffolds were designed and fabricated via fused deposition modelling (FDM) method for orthopedic defect approaches using polycaprolactone (PCL) and polylactic acid (PLA) polymer. The prepared scaffold was coated with Chitosan-Hydroxyapatite (HA) as a reinforcement. The application of PLA, PCL and HA received attention of orthopedic surgeons to accelerate the bone healing. However, the comparison between the compression strength value of these scaffolds required more investigation and advance mechanical testing. In this study, we coat the novel PCL and PLA scaffold with chitosan-HA composite to mimic with humans' body. In the next stage, the mechanical strength and the biological response of the specimen were examined. Then, the morphology and phase characterization of the materials were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The apatite formation and weight change test were performed on the porous scaffold which showed proper hydrophilicity. The microstructure of the porous scaffold was simulated using the Abaqus simulation with the extracted data from the experimental work. At the end, it was concluded that the most suitable scaffold was fabricated made of PLA filament and coated with chitosan-hydroxyapatite nanocomposite which can be useful choice for bone tissue engineering.