Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.86, No.3, 517-519, 2003
Sintered hydroxyapatite latticework for bone substitute
Hydroxyapatite suspensions were extruded through a range of nozzles from 100 to 330 mum diameter from a stepper-driven syringe. Regular latticework scaffolds were built by fused deposition modeling (FDM), a solid freeforming method, on a three-axis table using 330 mum diameter filament. The scaffolds were sintered at 1250degreesC to 97% density retaining the hydroxyapatite crystal structure. The scaffolds were introduced to cultured human osteoblast cells and, after 48 h, the surfaces were thoroughly covered with active cells.