Omigbodun Francis T, Osa-Uwagboe Norman, Udu Amadi Gabriel, Oladapo Bankole I
Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK.
The Manufacturing Technology Centre, Coventry CV7 9JU, UK.
Biomimetics (Basel). 2024 Sep 27;9(10):587. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics9100587.
This study explores the fabrication and characterisation of 3D-printed polylactic acid (PLA) scaffolds reinforced with calcium hydroxyapatite (cHAP) for bone tissue engineering applications. By varying the cHAP content, we aimed to enhance PLA scaffolds' mechanical and thermal properties, making them suitable for load-bearing biomedical applications. The results indicate that increasing cHAP content improves the tensile and compressive strength of the scaffolds, although it also increases brittleness. Notably, incorporating cHAP at 7.5% and 10% significantly enhances thermal stability and mechanical performance, with properties comparable to or exceeding those of human cancellous bone. Furthermore, this study integrates machine learning techniques to predict the mechanical properties of these composites, employing algorithms such as XGBoost and AdaBoost. The models demonstrated high predictive accuracy, with R scores of 0.9173 and 0.8772 for compressive and tensile strength, respectively. These findings highlight the potential of using data-driven approaches to optimise material properties autonomously, offering significant implications for developing custom-tailored scaffolds in bone tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The study underscores the promise of PLA/cHAP composites as viable candidates for advanced biomedical applications, particularly in creating patient-specific implants with improved mechanical and thermal characteristics.
本研究探索用于骨组织工程应用的、由羟基磷灰石（cHAP）增强的3D打印聚乳酸（PLA）支架的制造与表征。通过改变cHAP含量，我们旨在提高PLA支架的力学和热性能，使其适用于承重生物医学应用。结果表明，增加cHAP含量可提高支架的拉伸和压缩强度，尽管这也会增加脆性。值得注意的是，加入7.5%和10%的cHAP可显著提高热稳定性和力学性能，其性能与人类松质骨相当或超过人类松质骨。此外，本研究整合机器学习技术来预测这些复合材料的力学性能，采用了XGBoost和AdaBoost等算法。模型显示出较高的预测准确性，压缩强度和拉伸强度的R值分别为0.9173和0.8772。这些发现凸显了使用数据驱动方法自主优化材料性能的潜力，对骨组织工程和再生医学中开发定制支架具有重要意义。该研究强调了PLA/cHAP复合材料作为先进生物医学应用可行候选材料的前景，特别是在制造具有改善力学和热特性的患者特异性植入物方面。
