Comparison of the mechanobiological performance of bone tissue scaffolds based on different unit cell geometries. (July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rodríguez-Montaño, Óscar L.; Cortés-Rodríguez, Carlos Julio; Uva, Antonio E.; Fiorentino, Michele; Gattullo, Michele; Monno, Giuseppe; Boccaccio, Antonio
• Is Part Of: Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials. Volume 83(2018)
• Page Start: 28
• Page End: 45
• Publication Date: 2018-07
• Subjects: Beam-based scaffolds -- Bone tissue engineering -- Mechanobiology -- Unit cell -- Rhombic dodecahedron -- Truncated cube -- Truncated cuboctahedron -- Diamond; Biomedical materials -- Periodicals; Biomedical materials -- Mechanical properties -- Periodicals; Biomedical materials; Biomedical materials -- Mechanical properties; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 610.28
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2018.04.008
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-6161

Abstract

Abstract: Enhancing the performance of scaffolds for bone regeneration requires a multidisciplinary approach involving competences in the fields of Biology, Medicine and Engineering. A number of studies have been conducted to investigate the influence of scaffolds design parameters on their mechanical and biological response. The possibilities offered by the additive manufacturing techniques to fabricate sophisticated and very complex microgeometries that until few years ago were just a geometrical abstraction, led many researchers to design scaffolds made from different unit cell geometries. The aim of this work is to find, based on mechanobiological criteria and for different load regimes, the optimal geometrical parameters of scaffolds made from beam-based repeating unit cells, namely, truncated cuboctahedron, truncated cube, rhombic dodecahedron and diamond. The performance, -expressed in terms of percentage of the scaffold volume occupied by bone-, of the scaffolds based on these unit cells was compared with that of scaffolds based on other unit cell geometries such as: hexahedron and rhombicuboctahedron. A very intriguing behavior was predicted for the truncated cube unit cell that allows the formation of large amounts of bone for low load values and of very small amounts for the medium-high ones. For high values of load, scaffolds made from hexahedron unit cells were predicted to favor the formation of the largest amounts of bone. In a clinical context where medical solutions become more and more customized, this study offers a support to the surgeon in the choice of the best scaffold to be implanted in a patient-specific anatomic region. Graphical abstract: fx1 Highlights: Mechanobiological performances of different unit cells were compared. The study offers a support to surgeon in the choice of the best scaffold to implant. A mechanobiology-driven optimization algorithm is proposed. The optimal beam diameter of different unit cell geometries was computed.