3D tissue scaffold library development form medical images for bioprinting application

Abstract

Computer-Aided Tissue Engineering, rapid prototyping or solid free form fabrication (SFF) technique plays an important role in the development of porous tissue scaffolds for regeneration of cells with appropriate shape, size, and void volume so a specific cells can penetrate and develop in these scaffolds when nutrient is provided. SFF utilizes computer-aided design (CAD) and finite element analysis (FEA) to allow virtual design, characterization, and production of porous scaffold optimized for specific tissue. In this article, we propose an advanced approach for 3D printing using medical image which helps to replicate the various human anatomical structure that can be utilized for synthesis of patient-specific tissue scaffold by applying rapid prototyping (RP) also a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is provided which help end-user to choose the desired anatomical structure. This approach involves the combination of medical images obtained from anatomical structural data through CT (computed tomography)/Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the form of Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) obtained from online data source, CAD modeling for customized 3D designing the digital porous scaffold models with the help of medical images for different tissue like cardiac, articulating knee cartilage, skin, hepatic, bone etc., that leads to formation of 3D stereolithographic (STL) model and correspondingly development of digital library which can be further applied for patient-specific 3D bioprinting application. With the help of provided technology, a 3D scaffold could be developed on which specific cells are seeded to regenerate the desired tissue/organ. We successfully 3d printed five porous unit scaffolds designed in CAD module four of which is with polylactic acid (PLA) and one with chitosan composite polymer and observed the growth of cartilage on 3D printed chitosan composite scaffold.