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theses

Due to increased life expectancy and needs of the baby boomer population, it is estimated that in the United States alone, 1 million patients annually would require bone defect repair by 2020. The solution for bone regeneration is bone grafting. Autografts, allografts and xenografts have their disadvantages out weighing the benefits. Synthetic grafts are the latest alternative to overcome most of these issues such as donor site morbidity, bone shortage, high costs, transmission of infections, and ethical concerns. However, most current bone graft options fall short of managing the tight rope between mechanical properties, scalability, vascularization and porosity. Our lab has previously fabricated implants that have cortical sections modeled based on the structure of osteons. This project focuses on building on that initial design and 3D printing highly porous, pre-vascularized, osteoconductive and osteoinductive, load bearing scaffold for bone regeneration. Presence of micro-pores and macro-pores are seen. Trabecular sections have pores measuring 300-350 µm which is known to support bone growth, and the whole scaffold has pores approximately 5 µm in size which is favorable for vascularization. The scaffolds have good mechanical strength and are further reinforced using structural posts made of hydroxyapatite. Using 3D printing technology ensures greater control over the structure, porosity and pore size, and also reduces time, effort and human error. Thus the results of this project display the ability of a porous scaffold to develop new bone and vasculature while bearing physiological load that is cost effective, scalable, easily reproducible and a clinical reality.

ETD_8630

M.S.

Includes bibliographical references

by Adhithi Kanthan Lakshmikanthan

doi:10.7282/T37W6GDP

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.