Abstract
The introduction of two-photon polymerization (2PP) to the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) has led to great expectations for the production of scaffolds with an unprecedented degree of complexity and tailorable architecture. Unfortunately, resolution and size are usually mutually exclusive when using 2PP, resulting in a lack of highly-detailed scaffolds with a relevant size for clinical application. Through the combination of using a highly reactive photopolymer and optimizing key printing parameters, we propose for the first time a biodegradable and biocompatible poly(trimethylene-carbonate) (PTMC)-based scaffold of large size (18 × 18 × 0.9 mm) with a volume of 292 mm3 produced using 2PP. This increase in size results in a significant volumetric increase by almost an order of magnitude compared to previously available large-scale structures (Stichel 2010 J. Laser Micro./Nanoeng. 5 209–12). The structure’s detailed design resulted in a highly porous scaffold (96%) with excellent cytocompatibility, supporting the attachment, proliferation and differentiation of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells towards their osteogenic and chondrogenic lineages. This work strongly attests that 2PP is becoming a highly suitable technique for producing large-sized scaffolds with a complex architecture. We show as a proof-of-concept that an arrayed design of repetitive units can be produced, but a further perspective will be to print scaffolds with anisotropic features that are more representative of human tissues.
Highlights
Through the combination of using a highly reactive photopolymer and optimizing key printing parameters, we propose for the first time a biodegradable and biocompatible poly(trimethylene-carbonate) (PTMC)-based scaffold of large size (18 × 18 × 0.9 mm) with a volume of 292 mm3 produced using 2PP
The use of cell-laden three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds is a common strategy in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM)
The PTMC-MA containing methanol was firstly dried in the dark at ambient conditions overnight and dried in vacuum for another 7 d at room temperature
Summary
The use of cell-laden three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds is a common strategy in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM). When recreating the architectural features of tissues, several key factors, such as biocompatibility, mechanical support and porosity play an important role for the design of a scaffold. While traditional methods, such as salt leaching, gas foaming or freeze-drying follow these rules for scaffold fabrication, they lack the spatial control over the internal architecture of the scaffold. They do not provide any control over the resulting pores size and overall porosity of the resulting structure. Freedom of design and a high degree of porosity are two highly-valued benefits which have propelled SLA in the field of TERM, this method is limited to a feature resolution of around 20 μm [3]
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