Reverse Engineering and Additive Manufacturing towards the design of 3D advanced scaffolds for hard tissue regeneration

3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing technologies represent powerful tools for the direct fabrication of lightweight structures with improved and tunable properties. In current research, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)/3D fiber deposition technique was considered to design 3D multifunctional scaffolds with complex morphology, tailored biological, mechanical and mass transport properties. Polymeric and nanocomposite materials were used for scaffold design and optimization, with a particular focus on bone tissue engineering. As an example, poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL), and PCL-based nanocomposite scaffolds were fabricated and analyzed. The effects of structural and morphological features (i.e., sequence of stacking, fiber spacing, pore size and geometry) as well as of nanoparticle inclusion on the mechanical performances were reported. Furthermore, the possibility to design 3D customized scaffolds for mandibular defect regeneration (i.e., symphysis and ramus) was also considered.