Murchio Simone, Benedetti Matteo, Berto Anastasia, Agostinacchio Francesca, Zappini Gianluca, Maniglio Devid
Department of Industrial Engineering-DII, University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy.
BIOtech Research Center, University of Trento, 38122 Trento, Italy.
Materials (Basel). 2022 Sep 5;15(17):6156. doi: 10.3390/ma15176156.
Despite the tremendous technological advances that metal additive manufacturing (AM) has made in the last decades, there are still some major concerns guaranteeing its massive industrial application in the biomedical field. Indeed, some main limitations arise in dealing with their biological properties, specifically in terms of osseointegration. Morphological accuracy of sub-unital elements along with the printing resolution are major constraints in the design workspace of a lattice, hindering the possibility of manufacturing structures optimized for proper osteointegration. To overcome these issues, the authors developed a new hybrid multifunctional composite scaffold consisting of an AM Ti6Al4V lattice structure and a silk fibroin/gelatin foam. The composite was realized by combining laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) of simple cubic lattice structures with foaming techniques. A combined process of foaming and electrodeposition has been also evaluated. The multifunctional scaffolds were characterized to evaluate their pore size, morphology, and distribution as well as their adhesion and behavior at the metal-polymer interface. Pull-out tests in dry and hydrated conditions were employed for the mechanical characterization. Additionally, a cytotoxicity assessment was performed to preliminarily evaluate their potential application in the biomedical field as load-bearing next-generation medical devices.
尽管金属增材制造（AM）在过去几十年中取得了巨大的技术进步，但在保证其在生物医学领域大规模工业应用方面仍存在一些主要问题。事实上，在处理其生物学特性时，特别是在骨整合方面，会出现一些主要限制。亚单元元素的形态精度以及打印分辨率是晶格设计工作空间中的主要限制因素，阻碍了制造针对适当骨整合进行优化的结构的可能性。为了克服这些问题，作者开发了一种新型的混合多功能复合支架，该支架由增材制造的Ti6Al4V晶格结构和丝素蛋白/明胶泡沫组成。该复合材料是通过将简单立方晶格结构的激光粉末床熔融（L-PBF）与发泡技术相结合而实现的。还评估了发泡和电沉积的组合工艺。对多功能支架进行了表征，以评估其孔径、形态、分布以及它们在金属-聚合物界面处的附着力和行为。在干燥和水合条件下进行拉拔试验以进行力学表征。此外，进行了细胞毒性评估，以初步评估它们作为下一代承重医疗设备在生物医学领域的潜在应用。
