Abstract
Due to the excellent biocompatibility of natural polymers, a variety of natural polymers have been widely used as biomaterials for manufacturing tissue engineered scaffolds. Despite the excellent biological activity of natural polymers, there have been obstacles in using them on their own to prepare 3D scaffolds with sufficient mechanical strength. Although multiple 3D-bioprinting technologies have recently emerged as effective manufacturing tools for scaffold preparation, scaffold preparation using only natural polymers with tunable mechanical properties is still difficult. Herein, we introduce novel scaffold fabrication methods using the natural polymer silk fibroin via indirect 3D-bioprinting technology. The developed silk fibroin scaffolds showed biocompatibility and tunable mechanical strength by changing the concentration of the silk fibroin. Furthermore, controlling the flexibility of the silk fibroin scaffolds was made possible by changing the solvent for the silk fibroin solution used to fabricate the scaffold. Consequently, silk fibroin scaffolds fabricated via our method can be considered for various applications in the bioengineering of either soft or musculoskeletal tissues.
Highlights
Autologous or allogeneic tissue is transplanted to regenerate and re-store damaged tissue, which can be accompanied by various side effects such as donor morbidity and disease transmission [1]
We developed an indirect 3D-printing technique that enables fabricating constructs with complex geometries [20,21]
The shape fidelity and structures of the fabricated aqueous and HFIP-based Silk fibroin (SF) scafprepared via the 3D-printed mold showed relatively well-controlled pore size, shape, and folds were evaluated and compared with a conventionally produced salt-leached SF scaffold location
Summary
Autologous or allogeneic tissue is transplanted to regenerate and re-store damaged tissue, which can be accompanied by various side effects such as donor morbidity and disease transmission [1]. Scaffolds that simulate the structure, mechanical strength, and biochemical properties of the extracellular matrix (ECM) should be fabricated [2,3,4]. A variety of techniques have been used to fabricate scaffolds, such as electrospinning, freeze-drying, decellularization, and micropatterning [5,6]. These technologies have shape and structural control limitations that make it difficult to simulate the complex structure of the ECM. 3D-bioprinting, a recently emerged technology in the field of tissue engineering, can fabricate complex-shaped structures by precisely printing various biomaterials, biomolecules, and cells at the desired location through spatial control [7,8]. Three dimensional-bioprinting technology uses computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)
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