Date of Award
5-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Bioengineering
Committee Chair/Advisor
Dr. Agneta Simionescu
Committee Member
Dr. Jeremy Mercuri
Committee Member
Dr. Delphine Dean
Committee Member
Dr. Anna Reza
Abstract
A major goal for bone biomaterial implant design focuses on creating an implant that osseointegrates and aids in the regeneration of bone. If an implant fails to achieve anchorage with the host bone, it can lead to complications such as implant loosening or pseudoarthrosis. To combat this, designing an implant that can mimic the characteristics of natural bone can help induce osteogenesis. However, bone has a complex, non-uniform, and anisotropic structure resulting in a multitude of potential avenues for implant design. Understanding how specific modifications to an implant, such as biomaterial selection, porosity, and topography, impact its osteoconductivity will further add to the body of knowledge for orthopaedic implant design. While some studies have highlighted the osteogenic effect of certain materials and pore sizes, these characteristics have been scarcely studied in vitro with human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) on 3-D clinically relevant scaffolds. Therefore, in this work, a series of in vitro studies employing hMSCs seeded on various orthopaedic scaffolds of different bulk substrates, porosities, and surface roughnesses were performed and osteoconductive markers were analyzed. Specifically, the objectives of this work are to compare the osteoconductive potential of 1) scaffold materials titanium and PEEK, 2) macro- and micro- pore size ratios within a calcium phosphate based implant, and 3) titanium nitride coatings with different nano-topographies. The findings of this work suggest that the addition of a porous or roughened structure at the macro-, micro-, or nano- scale does have an impact on the osteogenic profile of an implant. Furthermore, the ratio of varying pore sizes also has an effect on physio-chemical and cellular response. Taken together, this research provides mechanistic insights on the hMSC response of various implant modifications to improve osseointegration potential. This may, in turn, increase the longevity of an implant and thus ultimately improve patient quality of life while decreasing the socioeconomic burden associated with implant loosening
Recommended Citation
Vera Martinez, Andrea, "The Impact of Biomaterial Selection, Porosity, and Topography on the Osteoconductive Potential of Orthopaedic Implants" (2026). All Dissertations. 4234.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/4234