Figure 4.

Illustration of calvarial defects, implantation sites, and bone-scaffold constructs implanted with the scaffolds of different pore sizes (100, 250, 400 μm). a) A calvarial defect model generated using Mimics 10.01 software according to the micro-CT image of the animal model (left) was used to print a scaffold customized to this defect (middle), which was implanted into the defect by simulation using the image ware 13.2 software (right). b) Bilateral operation in the SD rat cranium showing the calvarial defect before (left) and after (right) scaffold implantation, confirming that the scaffolds were nicely fitted into the defects. c) Optical images of retrieved specimens (implanted with scaffolds with different pore sizes of 100, 250, 400 μm) and blank (with defects but without implantations), showing that the scaffolds were still matching the defects after implanted in vivo for 4, 8, and 12 weeks.