Porous Titanium implants: in vivo and in vitro preliminary bone ingrowths analysis

Among various metallic biomaterials, titanium and its alloys are the most interesting for orthopaedic implants due to their excellent mechanical properties, biocompatibility and good corrosion resistance. However, a major problem concerning metallic implants in orthopaedic surgery is the mismatch of Young’s modulus between natural bone and bulk metallic biomaterials. Owing to this mechanical mismatch, bone is insufficiently loaded and becomes stress shielded, which can lead to bone density reduction and eventual loosening of the implant. Moreover vascularisation problems could occur due to the implant structure. A suggestion to overcome these drawbacks could be the design of porous materials, characterized by a Young’s modulus close to the natural bone, that could help the vascularisation inside the bone. In this work a preliminary in vitro and in vivo analysis was designed in order to investigate the cell growing on the boundary and on the bulk of new implants characterized by an interconnected porosity. Promising results were achieved for both analysis.