Luisa Schieber

Former bachelor student

3D Printing of 45S5 bioactive glass scaffolds with MSLA technology

 

Supervisors: Marcela Arango-Ospina, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

The human body has a great ability to heal minor bone damage on its own. However, if the defect is too large, the body can no longer heal the bone itself. For this reason, three-dimensional scaffolds are fabricated as part of bone tissue engineering to provide a better alternative to traditional bone grafts for bone augmentation [1,2]. The scaffolds must have a well-defined 3D structure to enable cell adhesion and support cell proliferation and differentiation, so that ingrowth into the remaining part of the bone is possible. In addition, the material from which the scaffold is made must also fulfil a number of requirements in order to integrate as well as possible into the human body. Especially the biological properties of the scaffold, such as good osteoconductivity and controllable osteodegradability, are of great importance [2,3]. These criteria are particularly well met by bioactive glass (BG), making it a promising material for bone tissue engineering. A well-known composition is 45S5 BG, which consists of 45 wt% SiO2, 24.5 wt% CaO, 24.5 wt% Na2O and 6.0 wt% P2O5 [1]. It is specially characterized by its good bioactivity and high reactivity with surrounding tissue [2]. The aim of this project is to optimize the 3D printing process of 45S5 based BG scaffolds using an stereolithography (SLA)-based technology. Printing parameters will be characterized to obtain an optimum glass-containing resin and adequate debinding process.

[1] Kang J-H, Jang K-J, Sakthiabirami K, Oh G-J, Jang J-G, Park C, Lim H-P, Yun K-D and Park S-W (2020) Mechanical properties and optical evaluation of scaffolds produced from 45S5 bioactive glass suspensions via stereolithography. Ceramics International. 46(2): 2481-2488.

[2] El-Rashidy A. A. et al., Regenerating bone with bioactive glass scaffolds: A review of in vivo studies in bone defect models (2017) Acta Biomaterialia 62: 1-28.

[3] Rahaman MN, Day DE, Sonny Bal B, Fu Q, Jung SB, Bonewald LF and Tomsia AP (2011) Bioactive glass in tissue engineering. Acta Biomaterialia. 7(6): 2355-2373.