Biofabrication of Biopolymer and Biocomposite Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering

The aims of this study were to fabricate biopolymer and biocomposite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering by an air pressure-aided deposition system. A thermosensitive mPEG-PCL-mPEG triblock copolymer was synthesized as a biopolymer material. Biocomposite material was composed of synthesized biopolymer and hydroxyapatite (HA) with a mean diameter of 100 µm. The weight ratio of HA added to the synthesized biopolymer was 0.5. The experimental results show that the average compressive strength of biocomposite scaffolds with mean pore size of 410µm (porosity 81%) is 18.38 MPa which is two times stronger than that of biopolymer scaffolds.