Review of Rapid Prototyping Techniques for Tissue Engineering Scaffolds Fabrication

Abstract

Tissue engineering scaffold is a 3D construction that acts as a template for tissue regeneration. The scaffold should have some basic requirements including biocompatibility, suitable mechanical properties, appropriate surface chemistry, high porosity and interconnectivity. Although several conventional techniques such as solvent casting and gas forming are utilized in scaffold fabrication, these processes show poor interconnectivity and uncontrollable porosity of the produced scaffolds. However, Rapid Prototyping (RP) techniques which are a group of advanced manufacturing processes can produce custom made objects directly from computer data such as Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data. Using RP fabrication techniques, constructions with controllable and complex internal architecture with appropriate mechanical properties can be achieved.The present chapter intends to provide an overview of the current state of the art in the area of tissue engineering scaffolds fabrication, using advanced RP processes. The present work highlights also the existing limitations in addition to future prospects in scaffold fabrication via RP techniques.