Minimal surface scaffold designs for tissue engineering

Abstract Triply-periodic minimal surfaces are shown to be a more versatile source of biomorphic scaffold designs than currently reported in the tissue engineering literature. A scaffold architecture with sheetlike morphology based on minimal surfaces is discussed, with significant structural and mec...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inBiomaterials Vol. 32; no. 29; pp. 6875 - 6882
Main Authors Kapfer, Sebastian C, Hyde, Stephen T, Mecke, Klaus, Arns, Christoph H, Schröder-Turk, Gerd E
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2011
Subjects
Advanced Basic Science
Animals
Biocompatible Materials - chemistry
Bone tissue engineering
Cell Culture Techniques
Dentistry
Finite element analysis
Materials Testing
Mechanical properties
Models, Theoretical
Porosity
Rapid prototyping
Scaffold
Stress, Mechanical
Surface Properties
Tissue Engineering - methods
Mechanical properties
Rapid prototyping
Bone tissue engineering
Finite element analysis
Scaffold
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Abstract Triply-periodic minimal surfaces are shown to be a more versatile source of biomorphic scaffold designs than currently reported in the tissue engineering literature. A scaffold architecture with sheetlike morphology based on minimal surfaces is discussed, with significant structural and mechanical advantages over conventional designs. These sheet solids are porous solids obtained by inflation of cubic minimal surfaces to sheets of finite thickness, as opposed to the conventional network solids where the minimal surface forms the solid/void interface. Using a finite-element approach, the mechanical stiffness of sheet solids is shown to exceed that of conventional network solids for a wide range of volume fractions and material parameters. We further discuss structure–property relationships for mechanical properties useful for custom-designed fabrication by rapid prototyping. Transport properties of the scaffolds are analyzed using Lattice-Boltzmann computations of the fluid permeability. The large number of different minimal surfaces, each of which can be realized as sheet or network solids and at different volume fractions, provides design flexibility essential for the optimization of competing design targets.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0142-9612
1878-5905
DOI:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.06.012