A Lotus Root Inspired 3D Printed Implant System With Intelligent Drug Release Patterns

In recent years,three-dimensional(3D)printing has been attracting much attention due to its ability to apply in a wide range of areas,such as engineering,military and medicine.Notably,the customization of bone implant has been denoted as one of most promising application in 3D printing.So far,over 5 million patients eager for bone transplant yearly in the global.Unfortunately,around 1.5% to 3%patients would accompany postoperative infection regardless of conventional implant or 3D printed implant.Severe and unnecessary cost would be emerged in vast majority of innocent patients if the antibiotics were used blindly to suppress infection.Furthermore,the overuse of antibiotics would also induce serials of resistant strains and drastic side effects.To overcome this problem,inspired by the natural lotus root and honeycomb,here we designed a customized implantable device with specific cavity by using 3D printing technology.Ultrasmall-sized Ag nanoparticles with high antibacterial properties were synthesized and loaded in the inner cavity.The cavity was then sealed with temperature responsive material for infectious triggered releasing.This work offered a feasible manner to realize effective and precise pathogen treatment,as well as to avoid the accumulation of the active antibiotics,thus would greatly decrease the hazards of bacterial resistance to antibiotics from a longterm point of view.