Page 84 - IJB-4-2

A multi-scale porous scaffold fabricated by a combined additive manufacturing and chemical etching process for bone tissue engineering

Figure 4. (a) Representative stress-strain curves and (b) compressive strength of the scaffolds under compression tests. Asterisks denote
significant difference with p < 0.05, as compared with PLLA-0 scaffold. n = 5. The typical surface microstructure of (c) GO/PLLA
scaffold and (d) GO/PLLA-1.0 scaffold.

Figure 5. Relationship between the hardness of scaffolds and etching time. Asterisks denote significant difference with p < 0.05, as
compared with PLLA-0 scaffold. n = 5.
[31]
was distinctly improved after the incorporation of GO. of cancellous bone (20-30 Hv) .
Particularly, GO/PLLA-1.0 scaffold exhibited a 21.8% 3.4 Biodegradation and mineralization
increase of hardness to 23.34 ± 1.14 Hv compared with
PLLA-1.0 scaffold (19.16 ± 1.21 Hv). Such a significant The multi-scale porous scaffolds were immersed in
reinforcement of PLLA-x scaffolds is believed to result SBF solution to investigate the degradability and
from the strong polymer-GO interface and reinforcing bioactivity. As shown in Figure 6, PLLA-0 scaffold had
mechanisms by GO [32] , which could slow down the a stable degradation curve over 5 weeks of immersion.
crack propagation in the scaffolds under load. And the It underwent little weight loss during the first week and
hardness of fabricated scaffolds was comparable to that degraded slightly about 6.6% ± 1.3% until 5 weeks. In

6 International Journal of Bioprinting (2018)–Volume 4, Issue 2