scholarly journals On the Tortuosity of TPMS Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 596
Author(s):  
Rafael Guerreiro ◽  
Tiago Pires ◽  
José M. Guedes ◽  
Paulo R. Fernandes ◽  
André P. G. Castro

Recently, bone tissue engineering (TE) has seen new developments, with triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMSs) being used to develop new porosity-controlled scaffolds to interface new tissue growth. The process of choosing the best geometry to a specific application still lacks research, so the goal for this work is to propose a new method of scaffold selection, based on assessing the tortuosity inside these symmetric TPMS-based structures. Additionally, computer fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations were conducted to validate this method. The comparison between tortuosity and CFD outputs suggests that an analysis of the tortuosity could be used as an early indicator of the scaffold’s viability for specific applications, favouring scaffolds with more intricate and curvature-dependent streamlines.

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 015003
Author(s):  
Lya Piaia ◽  
Simone S Silva ◽  
Joana M Gomes ◽  
Albina R Franco ◽  
Emanuel M Fernandes ◽  
...  

Abstract Bone regeneration and natural repair are long-standing processes that can lead to uneven new tissue growth. By introducing scaffolds that can be autografts and/or allografts, tissue engineering provides new approaches to manage the major burdens involved in this process. Polymeric scaffolds allow the incorporation of bioactive agents that improve their biological and mechanical performance, making them suitable materials for bone regeneration solutions. The present work aimed to create chitosan/beta-tricalcium phosphate-based scaffolds coated with silk fibroin and evaluate their potential for bone tissue engineering. Results showed that the obtained scaffolds have porosities up to 86%, interconnectivity up to 96%, pore sizes in the range of 60–170 μm, and a stiffness ranging from 1 to 2 MPa. Furthermore, when cultured with MC3T3 cells, the scaffolds were able to form apatite crystals after 21 d; and they were able to support cell growth and proliferation up to 14 d of culture. Besides, cellular proliferation was higher on the scaffolds coated with silk. These outcomes further demonstrate that the developed structures are suitable candidates to enhance bone tissue engineering.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedram Parandoush ◽  
Hanxiong Fan ◽  
Xiaolei Song ◽  
Dong Lin

Bioceramics with porous microstructure has attracted intense attention in tissue engineering due to tissue growth facilitation in the human body. In the present work, a novel manufacturing process for producing hydroxyapatite (HA) aerogels with a high density shell inspired by human bone microstructure is proposed for bone tissue engineering applications. This method combines laser processing and traditional freeze casting in which HA aerogel is prepared by freeze casting and aqueous suspension prior to laser processing of the aerogel surface with a focused CO2 laser beam that forms a dense layer on top of the porous microstructure. Using the proposed method, HA aerogel with dense shell was successfully prepared with a microstructure similar to human bone. The effect of laser process parameters on surface and cross-sectional morphology and microstructure was investigated in order to obtain optimum parameters and have a better understanding of the process. Low laser energy resulted in fragile surface with defects and cracks due to low temperature and inability of laser to fully melt the surface while high laser energy caused thermal damage both to surface and microstructure. The range of 40–45 W laser power, 5 mm/s scanning speed, spot size of 1 mmm and 50 % overlap in laser scanning the surface yielded the best surface morphology and micro structure in our experiments.


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