Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Turin, Italy.
Ann Biomed Eng. 2013 Oct;41(10):2027-41. doi: 10.1007/s10439-013-0815-5. Epub 2013 Apr 24.
The performance of porous scaffolds for tissue engineering (TE) applications is evaluated, in general, in terms of porosity, pore size and distribution, and pore tortuosity. These descriptors are often confounding when they are applied to characterize transport phenomena within porous scaffolds. On the contrary, permeability is a more effective parameter in (1) estimating mass and species transport through the scaffold and (2) describing its topological features, thus allowing a better evaluation of the overall scaffold performance. However, the evaluation of TE scaffold permeability suffers of a lack of uniformity and standards in measurement and testing procedures which makes the comparison of results obtained in different laboratories unfeasible. In this review paper we summarize the most important features influencing TE scaffold permeability, linking them to the theoretical background. An overview of methods applied for TE scaffold permeability evaluation is given, presenting experimental test benches and computational methods applied (1) to integrate experimental measurements and (2) to support the TE scaffold design process. Both experimental and computational limitations in the permeability evaluation process are also discussed.
用于组织工程（TE）应用的多孔支架的性能通常根据其孔隙率、孔径和分布以及孔径迂曲度来评估。当这些描述符应用于描述多孔支架内的传输现象时，它们通常会相互混淆。相比之下，渗透性是（1）估计通过支架的质量和物质传输以及（2）描述其拓扑特征的更有效参数，从而可以更好地评估整体支架性能。然而，TE 支架渗透性的评估存在测量和测试程序缺乏一致性和标准的问题，这使得在不同实验室获得的结果无法进行比较。在这篇综述论文中，我们总结了影响 TE 支架渗透性的最重要特征，并将其与理论背景联系起来。概述了用于 TE 支架渗透性评估的方法，介绍了应用于（1）整合实验测量和（2）支持 TE 支架设计过程的实验测试台和计算方法。还讨论了渗透性评估过程中的实验和计算局限性。
