POWRE: Bone Cell Ingrowth and Strength Characteristics of Microporous Titanium for Skeletal Repair

0074921 brinspower项目下的一个奖项将使PI获得生物工程、生物材料和植入物力学方面的专业知识，以增加她在力学和材料方面的一般经验。本研究将开始对微孔钛（泡沫钛）作为骨植入材料的研究。这项工作有几个动机：首先，当前金属种植材料与周围骨之间的刚度不匹配可能导致应力屏蔽，导致骨吸收和最终的种植失败。全多孔金属种植体的发展，其材料被设计成更接近于天然骨的特性，将有助于减少目前种植体所经历的应力屏蔽问题。其次，骨水泥失效和骨水泥碎片也会对植入物产生不利影响，这可以通过使用多孔/无骨水泥植入材料来避免。第三，具有可控微观结构的全多孔材料的开发将使植入物的设计具有改进的组织附着功能以及其他合成材料（例如，聚合物或陶瓷涂层或表面）的独特结合。除孔隙率外，孔隙形状和取向对材料的力学性能和细胞向内生长的程度也有明显的影响。因此，通过对多孔微结构的研究，以确定那些能够在保持机械强度的同时加速和增强骨长入的微结构，将为骨种植体的设计提供重要的新信息，既可以减少失败率，又可以通过快速种植体整合提高患者的生活质量。建议的工作将具体涉及**机械测试和有限元分析，以确定钛泡沫样品的刚度和强度特性；和**细胞生长研究在钛泡沫样品中植入骨细胞，并每隔一段时间检查是否长入

0074921BrinsonAn award under the POWRE program will enable the PI to gain expertise in bioengineering, biomaterials and implant mechanics to add to her experience in mechanics and materials in general. This research will begin an investigation of microporous titanium (Ti foam) for use as a bone implant material. There are several motivations for this work: First, the stiffness mismatch between current metallic implant materials and the surrounding bone can cause stress-shielding, leading to bone resorption and eventual implant failure. The development of completely porous metallic implants where the material is designed to more closely mimic natural bone properties will help reduce stress shielding problems experienced in current implants. Second, bone cement failure and cement debris also have a detrimental impact on implants, which is avoidable by use of a porous/cementless implant material. Third, development of a fully porous material with controllable microstructure will enable design of implants with improved functionality for tissue attachment as well as unique incorporation of other synthetic materials (e.g., polymer or ceramic coatings or surfaces). In addition to porosity level, pore shape and orientation will clearly affect the mechanical properties and extent of cell ingrowth. Thus, investigation of porous microstructures to identify those which will accelerate and enhance bone ingrowth, while retaining mechanical strength, would provide critical new information for design of bone implants, both to reduce failure rates and to improve quality of life for patients by rapid implant integration. The proposed work will specifically involve **Mechanical testing and finite element analysis to ascertain stiffness and strength properties of the Ti foam samples; and**Cell growth studies performed on Ti foam samples seeded with bone cells and examined at intervals for ingrowth.***