Technological watch

The employment of tissue engineering scaffolds in the reconstruction of the damaged bone tissues has shown remarkable promise since they significantly facilitate the healing process. Fabrication of highly porous biocompatible scaffolds with sufficient mechanical strength is still challenging. In this regard, polymers have been widely utilized to construct three-dimensional (3D) porous scaffolds due to their excellent processability and biocompatibility. However, insufficient mechanical strength and inappropriate degradation rate of the monophasic polymer scaffolds in the bone regeneration process, as the main challenges, limit their extensive clinical application. The incorporation of metallic fillers into the polymer matrix has been shown to be helpful due to their strengthening effect and magnificent impact on the biological properties of the polymer-based 3D porous scaffolds, including cell viability, osteogenic, angiogenic and antibacterial properties. In this paper, fabrication of the polymer/metal composite 3D porous scaffolds by additive manufacturing techniques, as the most convenient approache to construct complex polymer-based parts, their structural, mechanical, biodegradation, biocompatibility, osteogenic and angiogenic features have been reviewed. Furthermore, new perspectives have been proposed to promote the implementation of polymer/metal composite scaffolds in bone tissue engineering practices.