Mechanical Reliability and In Vitro Bioactivity of 3D-Printed Porous Polylactic Acid-Hydroxyapatite Scaffold

The study aimed to investigate the mechanical reliability and in vitro bioactivity of the three-dimensional (3D) printed hydroxyapatite (HA) reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) porous scaffolds. The experiments have been performed to study the effect of HA wt.% in PLA matrix, infill density, and post-printing thermal-stimulus on the flexural and compressive strength. Next to this, the best combination of input parameters, in-response of the observed mechanical properties, was determined to print the test specimens for the analysis of reliability, through Weibull distribution. Further, the fracture morphology of the developed PLA/HA porous scaffolds has been investigated, using scanning electron microscopy, to observe the involved fracture mechanism. Moreover, the in vitro cell-culture with osteoblastic bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells-lines has been studied after 1, 3, and 7 days of seeding. The results of the study highlighted that the processing parameters have a strong impact on the mechanical properties of the 3D printed porous scaffolds. Further, the in vitro analysis showed excellent growth, proliferation, and differentiation of osteoplastic cells. Along with these, the result of the Weibull distribution advocated that the printed porous scaffolds are mechanically reliable. Overall, the present study unequivocally advocates that the 3D printed PLA/HA scaffold can be used for potential tissue engineering and biomedical applications.