Investigating impact of pore size on the mechanical behavior of tissue engineering scaffold: A finite element study
Hamidreza Kahkouei, Jalil Nourisa and Amin Baseri
Science and Research Branch Islamic Azad University (SRBIAU), Iran Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran
: J Regen Med
Abstract
Bone secondary healing process consistof two different ossification mechanisms i.e., intra-membranous ossification and endochondral ossification (EO). EO is distinguished by differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MCs) into chondrocytes and sequential tissue differentiation of fibrous tissue (FT); cartilage (CT); immature bone (IB) and mature bone (MB). Several mechanoregulation (MR) algorithms have been proposed in the literature to date in order to predict the healing process exclusively followed EO. Some clear differences were observed among possible pathways of tissue development proposed in different algorithms. The aim of this study was to address the question of which pathways can predict EO the best by investigating the impact of different pathways on the EO. For This purpose, a 2D model of a broken tibia with a 3mm fracture gap was constructed and differentiation of stem cells and development of tissues in the determined pathways was implemented as a biofeedback loop through using Python scripting in Abaqus software. Results of this study showed that the algorithm which restricts tissue differentiation from granulation tissue (GT) to CT failed to predict bony bridge and some small islands of bone were left in some area of internal and peripheral callus. On the other hand, healing patterns predicted by algorithms which allow pathway of jumping from GT and FT to IB without passing through the CT showed no differences in comparison with the original theory in which no constraints were applied in tissue differentiation processes. However, by considering the constraint that in order to develop BT, CT should already exists, it significantly improves our prediction which is in agreement with experimental evidence showing that EO can take place though calcification of CT. Based on this investigation, two pathways should be considered crucial for correct prediction of EO: first, GT to CT and second, GT and FT should not be allowed to directly differentiate into bone phase. Results of this work suggest new regulatory algorithm by defining development pathways according to biological events and is able to correctly predict EO.
Biography
Hamid Kahkouei graduated his BSc from IAUCTB and MSc from SRBIAU, Iran. He focused his research on the biomechanical investigation of the tissue scaffold, and currently investigates the impact of internal architecture on the mechanical properties of the scaffolds. Email: janursa@aut.ac.ir
