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- Layer manufacturing of magnesium and its alloy structures for future applicationsPublication . Ng, C. C.; Savalani, M. M.; Man, H. C.; Gibson, I.This research aims to develop a rapid layer manufacturing technique to provide magnesium bone substitute for future applications in the medical fields. Selective laser melting (SLM), which is a laser based additive layer manufacturing technique and capable of producing required geometries directly from CAD data, is selected to build magnesium structures. Magnesium has several intrinsic properties including its excellent biocompat-ibility, biodegradable, bioresorbabiltity and proper mechanical properties which would make it suitable for orthopaedic applications. This paper will discuss the status quo of this material and its future implications. A miniature SLM system was built to achieve better control of the atmospheric conditions in which the magnesium would melt. The results revealed that the SLM is a promising technique to fabricate magnesium substitute for various orthopaedic applications.
- Biomimetic composite coating on rapid prototyped scaffolds for bone tissue engineeringPublication . Arafat, M. Tarik; Lam, Christopher X.F.; Ekaputra, Andrew K.; Wong, Siew Yee; Li, Xu; Gibson, IanThe objective of this present study was to improve the functional performance of rapid prototyped scaffolds for bone tissue engineering through biomimetic composite coating. Rapid prototyped poly(ε-caprolactone)/tri-calcium phosphate (PCL/TCP) scaffolds were fabricated using the screw extrusion system (SES). The fabricated PCL/TCP scaffolds were coated with a carbonated hydroxyapatite (CHA)-gelatin composite via biomimetic co-precipitation. The structure of the prepared CHA-gelatin composite coating was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Compressive mechanical testing revealed that the coating process did not have any detrimental effect on the mechanical properties of the scaffolds. The cell-scaffold interaction was studied by culturing porcine bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) on the scaffolds and assessing the proliferation and bone-related gene and protein expression capabilities of the cells. Confocal laser microscopy and SEM images of the cell-scaffold constructs showed a uniformly distributed cell sheet and accumulation of extracellular matrix in the interior of CHA-gelatin composite-coated PCL/TCP scaffolds. The proliferation rate of BMSCs on CHA-gelatin composite-coated PCL/TCP scaffolds was about 2.3 and 1.7 times higher than that on PCL/TCP scaffolds and CHA-coated PCL/TCP scaffolds, respectively, by day 10. Furthermore, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis revealed that CHA-gelatin composite-coated PCL/TCP scaffolds stimulate osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs the most, compared with PCL/TCP scaffolds and CHA-coated PCL/TCP scaffolds. These results demonstrate that CHA-gelatin composite-coated rapid prototyped PCL/TCP scaffolds are promising for bone tissue engineering.