Fiber Thickness and Porosity Control in a Biopolymer Scaffold 3D Printed through a Converted Commercial FDM Device

Abstract

3D printing has opened exciting new opportunities for the in vitro fabrication of biocompatible hybrid pseudo-tissues. Technologies based on additive manufacturing herald a near future when patients will receive therapies delivering functional tissue substitutes for the repair of their musculoskeletal tissue defects. In particular, bone tissue engineering (BTE) might extensively benefit from such an approach. However, designing an optimal 3D scaffold with adequate stiffness and biodegradability properties also guaranteeing the correct cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation, is still a challenge. The aim of this work was the rewiring of a commercial fuse deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer into a 3D bioplotter, aiming at obtaining scaffold fiber thickness and porosity control during its manufacturing. Although it is well-established that FDM is a fast and low-price technology, the high temperatures required for printing lead to limitations in the biomaterials that can be used. In our hands, modifying the printing head of the FDM device with a custom-made holder has allowed to print hydrogels commonly used for embedding living cells. The results highlight a good resolution, reproducibility and repeatability of alginate/gelatin scaffolds obtained via our custom 3D bioplotter prototype, showing a viable strategy to equip a small-medium laboratory with an instrument for manufacturing good-quality 3D scaffolds for cell culture and tissue engineering applications.

Vascularization in Bioartificial Parenchymal Tissue: Bioink and Bioprinting Strategies

“…3D-printing by fused-deposition modeling is a fast and cost-effective method for printing various materials [ 29 ]. The readaption of printers for bioprinting is not far-fetched.…”

“…The readaption of printers for bioprinting is not far-fetched. Although the high temperatures used in conventional 3D-printing are not suitable for bioprinting, by modification, conventional 3D-printers can be cost-effective microextrusion-based bioprinters [ 29 ]. Removal of the heating element and equipping the printer with a syringe pump system allows the deposition of bioink formulations [ 29 , 30 ].…”

Nanotopographical 3D-Printed Poly(ε-caprolactone) Scaffolds Enhance Proliferation and Osteogenic Differentiation of Urine-Derived Stem Cells for Bone Regeneration

“…Compared with traditional tissue engineering scaffold manufacturing methods, 3D printing technology has the advantages of high designability and high repeatability [ 28 , 29 ]. When tissue engineering settings are considered, 3D printing allows using several biomaterials such as biopolymers, to manufacture tissue-like 3D micro- and macro-structures containing biochemicals and even living cells [ 7 , 30 ]. However, the current 3D printing technology cannot control the nanotopological morphology of 3D-printed scaffolds.…”

Effect of Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Concentration on Polymeric Scaffolds Based on Blends of Poly-L-Lactic Acid (PLLA) and PHA Prepared via Thermally Induced Phase Separation (TIPS)

“…Over the recent years, large technological and scientific interest have dealt with the possibility of controlling polymer foams products to be employed as scaffolds for tissue engineering applications [1][2][3]. Many techniques have been developed to produce porous tissue engineering scaffolds, such as porogen leaching [4,5], freeze drying [6,7], 3D printing [8][9][10], electrospinning [11][12][13], thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) [14][15][16] and any possible combinations of these [17]. Among the listed techniques, TIPS is one of the most efficient due to its ease of implementation and potential capability to produce highly porous scaffolds with tunable properties [15,17].…”