3D-printed Tubular Scaffolds for Vascular Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Biomedical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes. Much of the work in biomedical engineering consists of research and development, spanning a broad array of subfields like biomechanics, genetic, neural, pharmaceutical, medical devices and tissue engineering among others. Tissue engineering has emerged as a key discipline for organ and tissue regeneration, in which compatibility with final user and a fast regeneration are still major challenges. Recently, three-dimensional printing has arose as an alternative system for producing biomaterials devices, such as scaffolds for tissue engineering. The proliferation of murine fibroblasts NIH/3T3, widely used in tissue engineering studies, into polycaprolactone scaffolds has been assayed in this paper. This work aim to analyze the effect of different architectures of 3D tubular scaffolds with empty core on fibroblast proliferation, focusing the tissue engineering application. We determined the effect of manufacturing process parameters and scaffold design onto the cell proliferation. From results, it can be concluded that manufacturing parameters (printing speed, temperature, and flow rate) affected fibroblast growth rate up to 40-65%. Narrow pores produced by an increased material extrusion showed less fibroblast growth, possibly due to a hindered oxygen and nutrient exchange. Nevertheless, future experiments using different designs and scaffold's architecture must be done.