Current status of the application of additive-manufactured TPMS structure in bone tissue engineering

Bone tissue engineering provided the innovative solution to regenerate bone tissue using scaffolds (porous) structures. This research investigates optimization, additive manufacturing methods and the application areas of triply periodic minimal surface-based (TPMS) porous structures in the broad field of tissue engineering through literature review. The properties of TPMS structures are compared with more classical strut-based structures. Also, information on how TPMS can be formulated and how they can be designed to obtain desired properties are presented. Attention is dedicated to the topological optimization process and how it can be applied to scaffolds to further increase their biomechanical properties and improve their design through density, heterogenization, and unit cell size grading. Common numerical algorithms as well as the difference between gradient-based and non-gradient-based algorithms are proposed. Efforts also include the description of the main additive manufacturing technologies that can be utilized to manufacture either stochastic or periodic scaffolds. The information present in this work should be able to introduce the reader to the use of TPMS structures in tissue engineering.