New orthopaedic implant devices that promote faster healing and ultimately reduce the strain on the NHS could be available in the future thanks to new research by Loughborough University engineering experts that reveals which structures best promote bone healing.
Dr Torres-Sanchez and her team of researchers found that the cells are sensitive to ‘topology’ – the way in which structures are arranged in a design – and this can be exploited to help tissue heal faster.
The new paper, published in the Advanced Engineering Materials Journal, even shows that the researchers were able to accelerate bone healing by making design tweaks.
Dr Torres-Sanchez hopes the study findings will “see clinical application in the very near future to help trauma and bone cancer patients”.
The paper has also been included in a special series titled ‘Women in Engineering Materials’, praising its practical significance.
Implant design and previous studies
Orthopaedic implants are medical devices that are used to replace missing joints or bone sections, or to support a damaged or diseased bone.
In the body, bones comprise voids and pores, which help give bone its biological and mechanical properties.
Implants look to mimic this porous structure in a bid to promote faster healing and integration of the implant in the body and replicate the mechanical properties of bone, including its ability to withstand forces generated by movement.
Two new types of designs were used in Dr Torres-Sanchez’s study: triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) and trabecular-like structures.
The study is one of the very few worldwide that assesses how design topology impacts biological and mechanical performance concurrently.
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Study methods
Dr Torres-Sanchez and team, in collaboration with industrial partners Alloyed Ltd and Core Specialists Services Ltd, tested the mechanical properties of TPMS and trabecular-like structures by 3D printing cubes – referred to as ‘scaffolds’ – using a biocompatible material such as titanium.
The mechanical properties of the scaffolds were tested by applying forces that replicate the physiological loads that implants would be subjected to in the body, to find out whether the new designs could withstand them and at which point they would fail.
The biological performance of the designs was assessed by adding pre-osteoblasts – precursor cells to osteoblasts (bone-building cells) – to the inside the scaffolds to see if the cells could evolve into mineral matter, which forms bone.
Findings
The researchers found that cells prefer the more random distribution of porosity, such as that seen in trabecular s