Morphological and mechanical biomimetic bone structures

Rachna Parwani, Marco Curto, Alex Kao, Peter Rowley, Martino Pani, Gianluca Tozzi, Asa Barber

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    Abstract

    Cortical bone is an example of a mineralized tissue containing a compositional distribution of hard and soft phases in 3-dimensional space for mechanical function. X-ray computed tomography (XCT) is able to describe this compositional and morphological complexity but methods to provide a physical output with sufficient fidelity to provide comparable mechanical function is lacking. A workflow is presented in this work to establish a method of using high contrast XCT to establish a virtual model of cortical bone that is manufactured using a multiple material capable 3D printer. Resultant 3D printed structures were produced based on more and less remodelled bone designs exhibiting a range of secondary osteon density. Variation in resultant mechanical properties of the 3D printed composite structures for each bone design was achieved using a combination of material components and reasonable prediction of elastic modulus provided using a Hashin-Shtrikman approach. The ability to 3D print composite structures using high contrast XCT to distinguish between compositional phases in a biological structure promises improved anatomical models as well as next-generation mechano-mimetic implants.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2761-2767
    Number of pages7
    JournalACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering
    Volume3
    Issue number11
    Early online date19 Dec 2016
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 13 Nov 2017

    Keywords

    • bone
    • mechanics
    • 3D printing
    • additive manufacturing
    • x-ray tomography
    • composites

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