OBJECTIVETo study the biocompatibility of bone engineering scaffolds designed and fabricated by CAD and Rapid Prototyping techniques.

METHODSInfant rat calvarias osteoblasts were isolated and expanded in vitro and the cells (2nd passage) were seeded onto scaffolds with porosity 80%, 90%, 95% at a density of 2.06 x 10(9)/L. Cell adhesion number and morphology were measured with SEM after 4 days, 10 days co-culture.

RESULTS(1) The osteoblasts' adhesion amounts increased with culture time in three porosity group (P < 0.05), but the increase were different among three groups, 80% group was 0.35 x 10(5), 90% group was 2.84 x 10(5); (2) Through SEM observations, it showed that osteoblasts adhered to all scaffolds well.

CONCLUSIONThe scaffolds designed and fabricated by CAD and rapid prototyping own a good cellular biocompatibility. The results suggest the feasibility of using such scaffold fabricating method for bone tissue engineering research and clinical therapy.

Animals ; Bone Substitutes ; Cell Adhesion ; Cells, Cultured ; Osteoblasts ; cytology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Tissue Engineering ; methods