Novel rapid direct deposition of ceramic paste for porous biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) scaffolds with tightly controlled 3-D macrochannels

We herein propose a novel way of creating porous biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) scaffolds with tightly controlled 3-D macrochannels using rapid direct deposition of ceramic paste (RDD-C). This newly developed RDD-C technique can rapidly solidify deposited green BCP filaments through the precipitation of a methylcellulose (MC) polymer used as the binder in aqueous BCP paste via solvent extraction mechanism. This allowed porous scaffolds produced with various initial distances between green filaments (0.5 mm, 1 mm, and 1.5 mm) to have tightly controlled 3-D macrochannels with good shape tolerance. As the initial distance between green filaments increased from 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm, overall porosity increased from 44.3±4.9 vol% to 63.5±2.5 vol%, while compressive strength decreased from 30.1±7.6 MPa to 11.6±3.8 MPa. The porous scaffold showed good biocompatibility assessed by in vitro cell tests.