Advances in additive manufacturing for bone tissue engineering scaffolds

Abstract

This article reviews the current state of the art of additive manufacturing techniques for the production of bone tissue engineering (BTE) scaffolds. The most well-known of these techniques include: stereolithography, selective laser sintering, fused deposition modelling and three-dimensional printing. This review analyses in detail the basic physical principles and main applications of these techniques and presents a list of biomaterials for BTE applications, including commercial trademarks. It also describes and compares the main advantages and disadvantages and explains the highlights of each additive manufacturing technique and their evolution. Finally, is discusses both their capabilities and limitations and proposes potential strategies to improve this field.

Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Bone; Scaffold; Tissue engineering.