Structural and Vascular Analysis of Tissue Engineering Scaffolds, Part 2: Topology Optimisation

Abstract

Rapid prototyping technologies were recently introduced in the medical field, being particularly viable to produce porous scaffolds for tissue engineering. These scaffolds should be biocompatible, biodegradable, with appropriate porosity, pore structure, and pore distribution, on top of presenting both surface and structural compatibility. Surface compatibility means a chemical, biological, and physical suitability with the host tissue. Structural compatibility corresponds to an optimal adaptation to the mechanical behaviour of the host tissue. This chapter presents a computer tool to support the design of scaffolds to be produced by rapid prototyping technologies. The software enables to evaluate scaffold mechanical properties as a function of porosity and pore topology and distribution, for a wide rage of materials, suitable for both hard and soft tissue engineering.

Innovation pathways in additive manufacturing: Methods for tracing emerging and branching paths from rapid prototyping to alternative applications

“…In the field of tissue engineering, researchers are exploring AM to assemble biocompatible 3D scaffolds seeded with stem cells to assist bone repair (Seyednejad et al, 2012a). The promise of producing tissues and artificial organs is a rapidly growing area of research, visible in RP, RM and tissue engineering conferences and publications (Almeida et al, 2007;Almeida and Bártolo, 2012;Seyednejad et al, 2012b). This requires a variety of skills, knowledge and technologies (i.e.…”

Scaffolds in Regenerative Endodontics: A Review.

“…[17] The latest generations of scaffolds have been engineered to have ideal properties and functional customization: injectability, synthetic manufacture, biocompatibility, nonimmunogenicity, transparency, nano-scale fibers, low concentration, and high resorption rates. [18] The types of scaffold materials available are natural or synthetic, biodegradable or permanent [19'20] Biological or natural scaffolds:-Blood clot:-The utilization of a blood clot to regenerate dental pulp tissues was first practiced by Ostby and resulted in a growth of granulation tissues, fibrous tissues or cementum-like tissues into the root canals. [21] It is believed that tissues are not able to grow into empty spaces with the absence of suitable scaffolds, [21] it can be suggested that blood clots yield good scaffolds to fill intracanal spaces and aid the growth of new tissues.…”

Computational technologies in tissue engineering

“…Computer-Aided Design of Scaffolds (CADS) makes the bridge between different computer applications by allowing to material database tools (knowledge based systems for materials selection), CAD modelling systems, numerical simulation tools for structural, topological and fluid dynamics optimisation based on the Finite Element Method. Reviews of computer-aided design of scaffolds in tissue engineering can be found in "Structural and Vascular Analysis of Tissue Engineering Scaffolds: Part 1 -Numerical Fluid Analysis" [15], "Structural and Vascular Analysis of Tissue Engineering Scaffolds: Part 2 -Topology Optimization" [16] and "Computer-Aided Tissue Engineering" [17].…”