Novel porous Ti35Zr28Nb scaffolds fabricated by powder metallurgy with excellent osteointegration ability for bone-tissue engineering applications

Wei Xu; Jingjing Tian; Zhuo Liu; Xin Lu; Muhammad Dilawer Hayat; Yu Yan; Zhou Li; Xuanhui Qu; Cuie Wen

doi:10.1016/j.msec.2019.110015

Novel porous Ti35Zr28Nb scaffolds fabricated by powder metallurgy with excellent osteointegration ability for bone-tissue engineering applications

Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2019 Dec:105:110015. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2019.110015. Epub 2019 Jul 26.

Authors

Wei Xu¹, Jingjing Tian², Zhuo Liu³, Xin Lu⁴, Muhammad Dilawer Hayat⁵, Yu Yan¹, Zhou Li³, Xuanhui Qu¹, Cuie Wen⁶

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
² Central Laboratory, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China.
³ CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Beijing Key Laboratory of Micro-nano Energy and Sensor, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China.
⁴ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: luxin@ustb.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
⁶ School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne 3001, Australia.

PMID: 31546430
DOI: 10.1016/j.msec.2019.110015

Abstract

Titanium (Ti) based porous alloys have been widely used as orthopedic implants. However, the successful applications of these porous Ti alloys need to have the ability to mimic the mechanical properties of natural bone. Novel porous Ti35Zr28Nb scaffolds were fabricated via powder metallurgy (PM), and the fabricated scaffold with 61.1% porosity exhibited favorable mechanical properties with a compression yield strength of 132.5 ± 3.5 MPa and an elastic modulus of 2.9 ± 0.4 GPa, which are desired mechanical properties for bone implant material applications. The extracts of the porous Ti35Zr28Nb scaffolds showed no toxic effect on cell proliferation in vitro and their cytotoxicity grade was at level 0, similar to that of as-cast pure Ti and Ti-6Al-4 V alloy. Additionally, the extracellular alkaline phosphatase (ALP) level of MC3T3-E1 indicated that the bone matrix synthesis on the porous Ti35Zr28Nb scaffolds was slightly higher than that of as-cast Ti-6Al-4 V and pure Ti alloys. After implantation in rat distal femurs for 8 weeks, the porous Ti35Zr28Nb scaffolds were surrounded by new bone tissue, and the numbers of red blood cells, white blood cells, immunocyte cells, and neutrophil cells returned to the normal levels, which indicate that the porous Ti35Zr28Nb scaffolds possess good in vivo osteointegration ability and hemocompatibility. It hence can be concluded that the PM-fabricated Ti35Zr28Nb scaffolds, which have desired mechanical properties and excellent biocompatibility and osteointegration, are a promising candidate alloy for bone-tissue engineering applications in orthopedics.

Keywords: Biocompatibility; Osteointegration; Porous scaffolds; Powder metallurgy; Ti35Zr28Nb alloy.

MeSH terms

Alloys / chemistry*
Animals
Biomechanical Phenomena
Bone and Bones / physiology*
Cell Line
Cell Shape
Implants, Experimental
Male
Metallurgy*
Mice
Osseointegration*
Porosity
Powders
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Tissue Engineering / methods*
Tissue Scaffolds / chemistry*
X-Ray Diffraction
X-Ray Microtomography

Substances

Alloys
Powders