Bone experts’ implants found to help speed up healing
A bone study by county experts may lead to better orthopaedic implant access and less strain on the NHS.
Researchers at Loughborough University found that bone-healing cells favour certain types of orthopaedic implant designs.
Orthopaedic implants are medical devices that replace missing joints or bone sections or support a damaged or diseased bone.
The implants could be available in the future thanks to university engineering experts, who have revealed the structures that promote bone healing.
The study, led by Dr Carmen Torres-Sanchez, a Reader in multifunctional materials manufacturing, tested implant designs in use, comparing them to novel designs to understand the structures bone-building cells favour.
Dr Torres-Sanchez said: “Longlasting successful implants that promote faster healing without setbacks like loosening or infections are a no-brainer for the NHS.
“The patient can go back to doing their life sooner, relieving the burden on hospitals, physiotherapy, carers, and contributing to a healthier, happier, more active life.
“We engineers can contribute to that by providing designs and scaffolds that promote healing and help speed up the patient recovery, including supporting mental health.”
Dr Torres-Sanchez said they are fine-tuning the designs to find subsequent evolutions of the multifunctional scaffolds.
Dr Torres-Sanchez and her team of researchers found that the cells are sensitive to “topology” - the way structures are arranged in a design - and this can be exploited to help tissue heal faster.
The new paper, published in the Advanced Engineering Materials Journal, shows researchers could accelerate bone healing by making design tweaks.
The paper has been included in a special series titled Women in Engineering Materials, praising its practical significance.
Dr Torres-Sanchez hopes the study findings will “see the clinical application soon to help trauma and bone cancer patients”.
In the body, bones comprise voids and pores, which help give a bone its biological and mechanical properties.
Implants try to mimic this porous structure to promote faster healing and integration of the implant in the body. They seek to replicate the mechanical properties of bone, including its ability to withstand forces generated by movement.
Two new types of designs were used in Dr Torres-Sanchez’s study: triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) and trabecular-like structures.
The study is one of few worldwide that assess how design topology impacts biological and mechanical performance concurrently.
Implants bridge the gap left after trauma or resection of diseased bone, and the topology of designs support bone healing.
Dr Torres-Sanchez and the team tested the mechanical properties of TPMS and trabecular-like structures by 3D printing cubes - referred to as “scaffolds” - using a biocompatible material such as titanium.
The properties were tested by applying forces that replicate the physiological loads that implants would be subjected to in the body to discover whether the new designs could withstand them and at which point they would fail.
The properties were tested by applying forces that replicate the physiological loads that implants would be subjected to in the body to discover whether the new designs could withstand them and at which point they would fail.
The researchers found cells prefer the random distribution of porosity, as they seem to identify them as home when the pore structure is unorganised.
The researchers were able to adjust the design of the “house” where cells live to accelerate the formation of mineral matter.
Dr Torres-Sanchez said it is a “privilege” to have the paper featured, and she hopes “more girls and women will come and work in design and manufacturing, a field typically outnumbered by men”.