Design and evaluation of TPMS-inspired 3D-printed scaffolds for bone tissue engineering: Enabling tailored mechanical and mass transport properties

Bone scaffolds in tissue engineering are used to provide mechanical support and facilitate bone regeneration. For this, mechanical and mass transport properties are of critical importance, yet compromised, to scaffold performance and remain to be solved. Herein, we propose novel strut-based scaffolds and design strategies that enable independent tailoring of topological, mechanical and mass transport properties. Scaffolds with different design parameters were characterized in terms of mechanical and mass transport properties through simulation analysis, and then they were fabricated by 3D printing for experimental verification. The simulation and experimental results showed that the proposed scaffolds exhibit controllable deformation modes and mass transport characteristics. The elastic modulus (0.58–4.12 GPa) and permeability (0.96 × 10−7-3.47 × 10−7 m2) of the designed structures fully meet the range of cancellous bone in existing literature. Moreover, we demonstrated that our designs enable scaffolds to decouple and individually tailor multi-physics properties at a given porosity, thus expanding the performance regulation space and providing guidance for designing scaffolds with desired properties.