In clinical practice, autologous or allogeneic bone grafts have been widely used in the repair of bone defects. Therefore, a variety of artificial bone materials, including metal materials and polymer materials, have attracted extensive attention. Ti-Ta-Nb-Zr alloy has the best corrosion resistance, tantalum and niobium have the ability to promote bone regeneration, zirconium can change the lattice structure of the alloy, improve higher strength. However, the traditional scaffolds have some shortcomings, such as irregular pore size, improper mechanical properties and poor connectivity between pores. Therefore, a great deal of efforts have been made to modify the porous structure and mechanical properties of Ti-Ta-Nb-Zr implants.
In cell proliferation and adhesion experiments, the proliferation of cells implanted on scaffolds was evaluated, and the results showed that the number of cells in porous Ti-Ta-Nb-Zr alloy group and porous Ti6Al4V group increased with the increase of culture time. The results showed that the scaffolds prepared by SLM had good biocompatibility. In the semi-quantitative analysis, there was no significant difference in cell activity on the porous scaffold at day 1, but the cell activity in the Ti-Ta-Nb-Zr alloy group was significantly higher than that in the Ti6Al4V group at day 3, 5, and 7.
Implants fixed in bone are designed to restore the loss of bone function, provide a bridge for the repair of bone defects or fractures, and have a wide range of clinical applications. The main properties required for these implants are adequate mechanical strength, excellent biocompatibility, and the ability to accelerate bone repair and integration. The experimental results show that the porous Ti-Ta-Nb-Zr alloy scaffold prepared by SLM has the above advantages in the repair of bone defects in vivo and in vitro. Therefore, the new three-dimensional porous Ti-Ta-Nb-Zr alloy scaffold has a better role in promoting bone regeneration and bone integration than the traditional three-dimensional porous Ti6Al4V scaffold, and has a good development prospect in the field of orthopedic implants.
