Abstract
Recent years, much attention has been paid to tissue engineering for bone regeneration. In current orthopedic treatments, artificial bone substitutes composed of bioactive ceramics are sometimes used instead of autograft and allograft to obtain bone tissue ingrowth in damaged regions. In this study, nonabsorbable porous bioceramics was implanted into femur of rabbits to perfomi invivo study of bone regeneration. Compression mechanical properties were then evaluated after implantation for fixed periods up to 48weeks. 3D fmite element models were also constructed using the ji-CT images taken after implantation. Computational analysis was conducted under a compressive loading condition and the effects of bone tissue ingrowth on the mechanical properties of the bioceramics specimen at each stages. Both experimental and computational results clearly showed that compressive modulus increased from 1 to 12 weeks and then decreased up to 48 weeks. It is presumed that bone tissue was regenerated excessively for 12 weeks and then, bone tissue fried to keep a steady state condition by remodeling.
