Development of an indirect solid freeform fabrication process based on microstereolithography for 3D porous scaffolds

Scaffold fabrication using solid freeform fabrication (SFF) technology is a hot topic in tissue engineering. Here, we present a new indirect SFF technology based on microstereolithography (MSTL), which has the highest resolution of all SFF methods, to construct a three-dimensional (3D) porous scaffold by combining SFF with molding technology. To realize this indirect method, we investigated and modified a water-soluble photopolymer. We used MSTL technology to fabricate a high-resolution 3D porous mold composed of the modified polymer. The mold can be removed using an appropriate solvent. We tested two materials, polycaprolactone and calcium sulfate hemihydrate, using the molding process, and developed a lost-mold shape forming process by dissolving the mold. This procedure demonstrated that the proposed method can yield scaffold pore sizes as small as 60-70 mu m. In addition, cytotoxicity test results indicated that the proposed process is feasible for producing 3D porous scaffolds.