Micromechanics of bioresorbable porous CEL2 glass ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Owing to their stimulating effects on bone cells, ceramics are identified as expressly promising materials for fabrication of tissue engineering (TE) scaffolds. To ensure the mechanical competence of TE scaffolds, it is of central importance to understand the impact of pore shape and volume on the mechanical behaviour of the scaffolds, also under complex loading states. Therefore, the theory of continuum micromechanics is used as basis for a material model predicting relationships between porosity and elastic/strength properties. The model, which mathematically expresses the mechanical behaviour of a ceramic matrix (based on a glass system of the type SiO2–P2O5–CaO–MgO–Na2O–K2O; called CEL2) in which interconnected pores are embedded, is carefully validated through a wealth of independent experimental data. The remarkably good agreement between porosity based model predictions for the elastic and strength properties of CEL2-based porous scaffolds and corresponding experimentally determined mechanical properties underlines the great potential of micromechanical modelling for speeding up the biomaterial and tissue engineering scaffold development process—by delivering reasonable estimates for thematerial behaviour, also beyond experimentally observed situations.