The Effect of Bone Tissue Engineering Scaffold Architecture on Mechanical Modulation of Cell Layer Behavior

Advances in Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques have made the design, control and modification of bone scaffolds inner architectures and their mechanical properties possible. CAD bone scaffolds based on triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMSs) have attracted attentions, due to their high surface area to volume ratio pore interconnectivity which enhance cell migration and attachment. The mechanical stimuli acting while fluid is flowing through scaffold pores can influence on proliferation, migration, differentiation and fate of mesenchymal stem cell. In the present study, the interaction between 2 TPMS-based bone scaffolds, termed G and I, with fluid in the presence 8.5 μm-cell layer (as mesenchymal stem cell accumulation) have been evaluated computationally. The results demonstrated that the scaffold G can modulate the cells more adequate due to producing homogenous distribution of mechanical stimuli comparing to scaffold I. The range of shear stress and von Mises stress for scaffold G are not wide which means the cells are sensing roughly the same mechanical stimuli. For both scaffolds in inlet velocities less than 50 μm/s, the magnitude of stresses is negligible. In addition, for scaffold I, there are dead zones which mechanical stimuli are approximately zero which prevents dynamic cell culture and homogenous signaling.