In this study, biomedical composite materials were employed to fabricate bone scaffolds using a self-developed rapid prototyping (RP) apparatus. The slurry formed by combining hydroxyapatite (HA), silica sol, and sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) was heated by a CO2 laser. Under appropriate processing parameters, a biocomposite green body was subsequently fabricated. Its mechanical properties, including surface roughness, bending and compression strengths, volume shrinkage rate, and surface microstructure, were analyzed after heat treatment to 1200 degrees C, 1300 degrees C, and 1400 degrees C. The results showed that after heating the specimen to 1200 degrees C, its compression and bending strengths increased significantly to 43.26 MPa and 1.28 MPa, respectively; the surface roughness was 12 mu m; and surface pores were of size 5-25 mu m. Furthermore, the results of WST-1 and LDH assay indicate that the biocomposites showed no cytotoxicity on 3T3 fibroblast. An optical density (OD) of 1.1 was also achieved, and the specimen was suitable for the adhesion and growth of osteoblast-like cells (MG63). Therefore, the biocomposite bone scaffolds fabricated in this study have potential to be bone implants for developing hard tissue. (c) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.