Ti6Ta4Sn alloy and subsequent scaffolding for bone tissue engineering.

Porous titanium (Ti) and titanium alloys are promising scaffold biomaterials for bone tissue engineering, because they have the potential to provide new bone tissue ingrowth abilities and low elastic modulus to match that of natural bone. In the present study, a new highly porous Ti6Ta4Sn alloy scaffold with the addition of biocompatible alloying elements (tantalum (Ta) and tin (Sn)) was prepared using a space-holder sintering method. The strength of the Ti6Ta4Sn scaffold with a porosity of 75% was found to be significantly higher than that of a pure Ti scaffold with the same porosity. The elastic modulus of the porous alloy can be customized to match that of human bone by adjusting its porosity. In addition, the porous Ti6Ta4Sn alloy exhibited an interconnected porous structure, which enabled the ingrowth of new bone tissues. Cell culture results revealed that human SaOS(2) osteoblast-like cells grew and spread well on the surfaces of the solid alloy, and throughout the porous scaffold. The surface roughness of the alloy showed a significant effect on the cell behavior, and the optimum surface roughness range for the adhesion of the SaOS(2) cell on the alloy was 0.15 to 0.35 mum. The present study illustrated the feasibility of using the porous Ti6Ta4Sn alloy scaffold as an orthopedic implant material with a special emphasis on its excellent biomechanical properties and in vitro biocompatibility with a high preference by osteoblast-like cells.