LAUSR

Bone ingrowth into scaffold under mechanical stimulus is a fundamental issue in bone repair. To evaluate the mechanical effect on the bone repair process, we here studied the evolution of in-scaffold bone formation through characterizing the varying bone volume percentage by animal experiment and mathematical modeling. First, 10 Ti-alloy scaffolds were implanted into the left posterior limbs of 10 rabbits. The 10 rabbits were divided into two groups: five rabbits were in the low-stress-stimulus group with casted plasters, and the rest five in high-stress-stimulus group without plasters. Then, the bone volume percentages at five time points were collected by micro-CT examination. Correspondingly, the dynamic bone ingrowth process was also numerically simulated. The result showed that the bone volume percentages of the two groups in the experiment and simulation were comparable, and the great mechanical stimulus improved the bone formation. This work provides experimental and numerical methods to study the mechanical-regulated bone ingrowth in bone tissue engineering, and can be used to engineer bone substitute for the clinical rehabilitation.