Page 68 - Development of Functional Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering Using 3D-Bioprinting of Cells and Biomaterials - Yasaman Zamani

Figure 5. Stress-strain curves of homogeneous and gradient scaffolds in the building and the side directions. When compressed in the building direction, scaffolds behaved elastically in the initial linear region and then reached a plateau stage of roughly constant or slightly increasing stress. When compressed in the side direction, scaffolds exhibited a distinctive yield point after the initial elastic region and then collapsed resulting in sharp decrease in stress values.
Compressive strength of all scaffold types was higher in the building direction compared with the side direction (Fig. 6). Compressive strength of the homogeneous scaffolds decreased with increasing scaffold void size (Fig. 6a). Compressive strength of the gradient scaffolds was higher in the upper half compared with the lower half of the scaffold (2 region-gradient scaffold: 2-fold higher; 3 region-gradient scaffold: 1.5-fold higher; Fig. 6b). Compressive strength of the 2 region-gradient scaffold was higher compared with the 3 region-gradient scaffold (Fig. 6b). Compressive modulus of the homogeneous scaffolds decreased with increasing scaffold void size (Fig. 6c). Compressive modulus was not significantly different between the two gradient scaffolds (Fig. 6c).
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