Comprehensive Review on Full Bone Regeneration through 3D Printing Approaches

Abstract

Abstract Over the last decades, the number of work accidents associated with bone fractures has increased leading to a growing concern worldwide. Currently, auto- grafts, allografts, and xenografts are used for bone regeneration. However, their application has associated risks. Tissue engineering (TE) has brought solutions to address these problems, through the production of temporary supports, provid- ing mechanical support to the formation of new bone tissue and biocompatible and biodegradable scaffolds, which allow cell adhesion and proliferation to ensure bone formation. The combination of materials and structure with the technique to be used will directly influence their physical and chemical properties and, conse- quently, their action in contributing to bone regeneration. Thus, the focus of this chapter is to perform an exhaustive literature review and a critical analysis of the state of the art in bone TE and present a proposal of an optimized temporary sup- port geometry for bone regeneration in case of large bone defects. For this, it was listed and identified the best choice of biomaterials, fabrication method, cell type and their culture conditions (static vs. dynamic), and/or the inclusion of growth factors for the repair of large bone defects. Keywords: