Page 69 - Development of Functional Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering Using 3D-Bioprinting of Cells and Biomaterials - Yasaman Zamani

Figure 6. Compressive strength and modulus of the 3D-printed PCL scaffolds. (a) Compressive strength of the homogeneous scaffolds in the building and side direction. Scaffolds had higher compressive strength in the building direction compared with the side direction. Compressive strength of the scaffolds decreased with increasing scaffold void size. *Significantly different from 0.3, p<0.05, #Significantly different from 0.6, p<0.05. (b) Compressive strength of the gradient scaffolds in the building and side direction. Compressive strength of the gradient scaffolds was higher in the upper half compared with the lower half of the scaffold. Compressive strength of the 0.3-0.6 gradient scaffold in the building direction was higher compared with the 0.3-0.6-0.9 gradient scaffold. *Significantly different from 0.3-0.6 gradient scaffold, p<0.05, #Significantly different from the upper half, p<0.05. (c) Compressive modulus of the homogeneous and the gradient scaffolds. Compressive modulus of the homogeneous scaffolds decreased with increasing scaffold void size. Compressive modulus was not significantly different between the two gradient scaffolds. *Significantly different from 0.3, p<0.05, #Significantly different from 0.6, p<0.05.
All scaffold types had significantly low tensile strength in scaffold layer-by-layer building direction (data not shown). Tensile strength of the homogeneous scaffolds decreased with increasing scaffold void size (Fig. 7a). Tensile strength of the 2 region-gradient scaffold was higher compared with the 3 region-gradient scaffold (Fig. 7b). Tensile modulus of the homogeneous scaffolds decreased with increasing scaffold void size (Fig. 7c). Tensile modulus was not significantly different between the two gradient scaffolds (Fig. 7c). The shape of the scaffolds was distorted, but no visible change in the shape or size of the voids was observed in the scaffolds after mechanical testing.
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