Spatially distributed and interconnected porous architectures for dental implants.

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Engineering
• Tissue Engineering
• Dental Implantology

Background:

• Dental implant success is challenged by compromised osseointegration in patients with poor bone integrity.
• Interconnected porous titanium architectures offer potential to improve bone-to-implant contact.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate three titanium porous architectures (TPMS solid gyroid, TPMS sheet gyroid, Voronoi lattice) for dental implants.
• To assess manufacturability, design controllability, and cellular interactions.
• To identify an optimal architecture for enhanced cellular behavior and bone integration.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of three porous architectures using selective laser melting (SLM).
• Evaluation of porosity, manufacturability, and permeability using microcomputed tomography (microCT) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
• In vitro assessment of bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) adhesion, infiltration, and trajectory on scaffolds using SEM and confocal microscopy.

Main Results:

• SLM successfully fabricated all architectures; TPMS solid gyroid showed highest manufacturing resolution and uniform pore distribution.
• TPMS solid gyroid exhibited superior permeability compared to other architectures.
• In vitro studies revealed enhanced BMSC adhesion and infiltration in the TPMS solid gyroid scaffold, with a 4-fold increase in RNA quantity.

Conclusions:

• Interconnected porous titanium constructs enhance cellular behavior over dense implants.
• The TPMS solid gyroid architecture demonstrates superior manufacturability and cellular interaction.
• This architecture is a promising solution for improving dental implant success in patients with compromised bone integrity.