Preparation of porous Ta-10%Nb alloy scaffold and its in vitro biocompatibility evaluation using MC3T3-E1 cells

A highly porous Ta-10%Nb alloy was successfully prepared for tissue engineering via the methods of the sponge impregnation and sintering techniques.The porous Ta-10%Nb alloy offers the capability of processing a pore size of 300-600μm,a porosity of(68.0±0.41)%,and open porosity of(93.5±2.6)%.The alloy also shows desirable mechanical properties similar to those of cancellous bone with the elastic modulus and the comprehensive strength of(2.54±0.5)GPa and(83.43±2.5)MPa,respectively.The morphology of the pores in the porous Ta-Nb alloy shows a good interconnected three-dimension(3D)network open cell structure.It is also found that the rat MC3T3-E1 cell can well adhere,grow and proliferate on the porous Ta-Nb alloy.The interaction of the porous alloy on cells is attributed to its desirable pore structure,porosity and the great surface area.The advanced mechanical and biocompatible properties of the porous alloy indicate that this material has promising potential applications in tissue engineering.

Biomedical titanium alloys and their additive manufacturing

Titanium and its alloys have been widely used for biomedical applications due to their better biomechanical and biochemical compatibility than other metallic materials such as stainless steels and Co-based alloys.A brief review on the development of the b-type titanium alloys with high strength and low elastic modulus is given and the use of additive manufacturing technologies to produce porous titanium alloy parts,using Ti-6Al-4V as a reference,and its potential in fabricating biomedica replacements are discussed in this paper.

Wear response of metastable b-type Ti–25Nb–2Mo–4Sn alloy for biomedical applications

The wear response of a newly developed metastable b-type Ti–25Nb–2Mo–4Sn(abbreviated as Ti-2524) alloy was investigated and compared with that of(a+b)-type Ti–6Al–4V alloy. Experimental results show that solution-treated(ST) Ti-2524 specimen has the lowest wear rate due to the combined effects of excellent ductility and lubricative Nb2O5. Although similar Nb2O5 forms on the surface of the cold rolled plus annealed(CRA) Ti-2524 specimen, the beneficial effect of Nb2O5 on the wear resistance is counteracted by the increase in wear rate caused by low elongation. Thus, the wear rate of the CRA Ti-2524 alloy is higher than that of ST Ti-2524 specimen.As for the ST Ti–6Al–4V alloy, no lubricative Nb2O5 forms on its worn surface owing to the absence of Nb. In addition, the ST Ti–6Al–4V alloy exhibits an elongation roughly similar to the CRA Ti-2524 specimen. Therefore,the ST Ti–6Al–4V specimen possesses a higher wear rate than the CRA Ti-2524 specimen.

Mechanobiologically optimized Ti-35Nb-2Ta-3Zr improves load transduction and enhances bone remodeling in tilted dental implant therapy

The tilted implant with immediate function is increasingly used in clinical dental therapy for edentulous and partially edentulous patients with excessive bone resorption and the anatomic limitations in the alveolar ridge.However,peri-implant cervical bone loss can be caused by the stress shielding effect.Herein,inspired by the concept of“materiobiology”,the mechanical characteristics of materials were considered along with bone biology for tilted implant design.In this study,a novel Ti-35Nb-2Ta-3Zr alloy(TNTZ)implant with low elastic modulus,high strength and favorable biocompatibility was developed.Then the human alveolar bone environment was mimicked in goat and finite element(FE)models to investigate the mechanical property and the related peri-implant bone remodeling of TNTZ compared to commonly used Ti-6Al-4V(TC4)in tilted implantation under loading condition.Next,a layer-by-layer quantitative correlation of the FE and X-ray Microscopy(XRM)analysis suggested that the TNTZ implant present better mechanobiological characteristics including improved load transduction and increased bone area in the tilted implantation model compared to TC4 implant,especially in the upper 1/3 region of peri-implant bone that is“lower stress”.Finally,combining the static and dynamic parameters of bone,it was further verified that TNTZ enhanced bone remodeling in“lower stress”upper 1/3 region.This study demonstrates that TNTZ is a mechanobiological optimized tilted implant material that enhances load transduction and bone remodeling.