Gabrieli Roberta, Schiavi Alessandro, Baino Francesco
Institute of Materials Physics and Engineering, Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca Degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Turin, Italy.
National Institute of Metrological Research (INRiM), Applied Metrology and Engineering Division, 10135 Turin, Italy.
Materials (Basel). 2024 Nov 12;17(22):5522. doi: 10.3390/ma17225522.
The "architectural suitability" of scaffolds for bone tissue engineering is commonly evaluated by assessing the pore volume and the mean pore size (or pore size distribution, if possible) and comparing these values with the reference ranges of human cancellous bone. However, these two parameters cannot precisely describe the complex architecture of bone scaffolds and just provide a preliminary comparative criterion. Permeability is suggested as a more comprehensive and significant parameter to characterize scaffold architecture and mass transport capability, being also related to bone in-growth and, thus, functional properties. However, assessing the permeability of bioactive ceramics and glass scaffolds is a complex task from both methodological and experimental viewpoints. After providing an overview of the fundamentals about porosity in scaffolds, this review explores the different experimental and numerical approaches used to determine the permeability of porous bioceramics, describing the methodologies used (pump-based, gravity-based, acoustic and computational methods) and highlighting advantages and limitations to overcome (e.g., reliability issues and need for better standardization of the experimental procedures).
骨组织工程支架的“结构适应性”通常通过评估孔隙体积和平均孔径（若可能，还包括孔径分布），并将这些值与人类松质骨的参考范围进行比较来评价。然而，这两个参数无法精确描述骨支架的复杂结构，仅提供了一个初步的比较标准。渗透率被认为是表征支架结构和物质传输能力的更全面且重要的参数，它还与骨长入以及功能特性相关。然而，从方法学和实验角度来看，评估生物活性陶瓷和玻璃支架的渗透率是一项复杂的任务。在概述了支架孔隙率的基本原理后，本综述探讨了用于测定多孔生物陶瓷渗透率的不同实验和数值方法，描述了所使用的方法（基于泵的方法、基于重力的方法、声学方法和计算方法），并突出了需要克服的优点和局限性（例如，可靠性问题以及实验程序更好标准化的必要性）。
