Nonstoichiometric wollastonite bioceramic scaffolds with core-shell pore struts and adjustable mechanical and biodegradable properties

Abstract Controllable mechanical strength and biodegradation of bioceramic scaffolds is a great challenge to treat the load-bearing bone defects. Herein a new strategy has been developed to fabricate porous bioceramic scaffolds with adjustable component distributions based on varying the core-shell-structured nozzles in three-dimensional (3D) direct ink writing platform. The porous bioceramic scaffolds composed of different nonstoichiometic calcium silicate (nCSi) with 0%, 4% or 10% of magnesium-substituting-calcium ratio (CSi, CSi-Mg4, CSi-Mg10) was fabricated. Beyond the mechanically mixed composite scaffolds, varying the different nCSi slurries through the coaxially aligned bilayer nozzle makes it easy to create core-shell bilayer bioceramic filaments and better control of the different nCSi distribution in pore strut after sintering. It was evident that the magnesium substitution in CSi contributed to the increase of compressive strength for the single-phasic scaffolds from 11.2 MPa (CSi), to 39.4 MPa (CSi-Mg4) and 80 MPa (CSi-Mg10). The nCSi distribution in pore struts in the series of core-shell-strut scaffolds could significantly adjust the strength [e.g. CSi@CSi-Mg10 (58.9 MPa) vs CSi-Mg10@CSi (30.4 MPa)] and biodegradation ratio in Tris buffer for a long time stage (6 weeks). These findings demonstrate that the nCSi components with different distributions in core or shell layer of pore struts lead to tunable strength and biodegradation inside their interconnected macropore architectures of the scaffolds. It is possibly helpful to develop new bioactive scaffolds for time-dependent tailoring mechanical and biological performances to significantly enhance bone regeneration and repair applications, especially in some load-bearing bone defects.