Biodegradable ceramic
(composite) scaffolds have inspired worldwide
efforts in bone regenerative medicine. However, balancing the biodegradation
with the bone’s natural healing time scale remains difficult;
in particularl, there is a lack of strategy to control component distribution
and bioactive ion release favorable for stimulating alveolar bone
tissue ingrowth in situ within an expected time window. Here we aimed
to develop the robocasting core–shell bioceramic scaffolds
and investigate their physicochemical properties and osteostimulative
capability in beagle alveolar bone defect model. The β-tircalcium
phosphate (TCP) and 5% Mg-doped calcium silicate (CSi-Mg5) were used
to fabricate the core–shell-typed TCP@TCP, CSi-Mg5@CSi-Mg5
and TCP@CSi-Mg5 porous scaffolds. Both in vitro and in vivo studies
show that the CSi-Mg5 shell readily contributed to the initial mechanical
strength and early-stage osteogenic activity of the TCP@CSi-Mg5 scaffolds,
including tunable ion release, enhanced biodegradation, and outstanding
osteogenesis capacity in comparison with the CSi-Mg5@CSi-Mg5 scaffolds
and clinically available Bio-Oss granules in alveolar bone defects.
Therefore, the presented core–shell robocasting of bioceramic
technology and porous scaffold biomaterials enables an accurate preparation
of highly bioactive and biodegradable scaffolds with a large freedom
of design, and thereby may be beneficial for fabricating osteostimulation-tuned
porous scaffolds for the challengeable alveolar bone defect reconstruction
medicine.