Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Bioengineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, PR China.
Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Bioengineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, PR China.
J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2018 Aug;84:1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2018.04.010. Epub 2018 Apr 18.
Selective laser melting (SLM) is one of the three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques that manufacturing versatile porous scaffolds with precise architectures for potential orthopedic application. To understand how the pore sizes of porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds affect their biological performances, we designed and fabricated porous Ti6Al4V implants with straightforward pore dimensions (500, 700, and 900 µm) via SLM, termed as p500, p700, and p900 respectively. The morphological characteristics of Ti6Al4V scaffolds were assessed showing that the actual pore sizes of these scaffolds were 401 ± 26 µm, 607 ± 24 µm, 801 ± 33 µm, respectively. The mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V scaffolds were also evaluated showing that they were comparable to that of bone tissues. Meanwhile, the effect of pore size on biological responses was systematically investigated in vitro and in vivo. It was verified that 3D printing technique was able to fabricate porous Ti6Al4V implants with proper mechanical properties analogous to human bone. The in vitro results revealed that scaffolds with appropriate pore dimension were conducive to cell adhesion, proliferation and early differentiation. Furthermore, the porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds were implanted into the rabbit femur to investigate bone regeneration performance, the in vivo experiment showed the p700 sample was in favor of bone ingrowth into implant pores and bone-implant fixation stability. Taken together, the biological performance of p700 group with actual pore size of about 600 µm was superior to other two groups. The obtained findings provide basis to individually design and fabricate suitable porous Ti6Al4V with specific geometries for orthopedic application.
选择性激光熔化（SLM）是 3D 打印技术之一，可用于制造具有精确结构的多功能多孔支架，适用于潜在的骨科应用。为了了解多孔 Ti6Al4V 支架的孔径大小如何影响其生物学性能，我们通过 SLM 设计并制造了具有直接孔径（500、700 和 900 µm）的多孔 Ti6Al4V 植入物，分别称为 p500、p700 和 p900。通过评估 Ti6Al4V 支架的形态特征，发现这些支架的实际孔径分别为 401 ± 26 µm、607 ± 24 µm 和 801 ± 33 µm。还评估了 Ti6Al4V 支架的机械性能，结果表明它们与骨组织相当。同时，还系统地研究了孔径大小对体外和体内生物学反应的影响。验证了 3D 打印技术能够制造出具有适当机械性能且类似于人体骨骼的多孔 Ti6Al4V 植入物。体外结果表明，具有适当孔径的支架有利于细胞黏附、增殖和早期分化。此外，将多孔 Ti6Al4V 支架植入兔股骨中以研究骨再生性能，体内实验表明 p700 样本有利于骨长入植入物孔中和骨-植入物固定稳定性。综上所述，实际孔径约为 600 µm 的 p700 组的生物学性能优于其他两组。研究结果为针对特定骨科应用需求单独设计和制造具有特定几何形状的合适多孔 Ti6Al4V 提供了依据。
