Fabrication of a continuously oriented porous Al2O3 body and its in vitro study

Continuously oriented porous Al2O3 bodies were fabricated by a multi-pass extrusion process using C powders and ethylene vinyl acetate as an agent for pore forming and as a binder, respectively. The main pore size can be easily controlled by increasing the number of extrusion passes. The edges of the pore frame showed a rough surface having many fine pores about 0.2-1 mu m in size. In the continuously porous Al2O3 bodies having 150 pm pore size, the values of the relative density and bending strength were about 63% and 90 MPa, respectively. These values were higher than those of an Al2O3 porous body made by a common process. From the in vitro study using human osteoblast-like MG-63 cells, it was confirmed that the cells grew well and adhered to the top surface and inside pores, as well as the outside wall of the continuously porous Al2O3 body. Without the directionality, the cells showed some spindle-shaped, three-dimensional, and network-type structures.