Study of the processes of three-dimensional printing of caprolactone copolymers with methylphosphate groups

Abstract

Reconstruction of the damaged or missed organs or skeleton fragments is an ambitious target for regenerative medicine. Tissue engineering construction (TEC) comprising three-dimensional bioresorbable scaffold and living cells can become native tissue substitute. Scaffold should correspond to strict requirements. Generally, its physical-mechanical and biochemical characteristics should be comparable with tissue to be replaced. Besides, resorption rate of scaffold material should correlate with the tissue regeneration rate in each case. Thus, the effect of scaffold manufacturing methods on its properties is an important point in TEC design and fabrication. At present study, thermo-extrusion 3D printing of bioresorbable scaffolds based on polycaprolactone and its copolymer with polyethylene glycol and methylphosphate groups, synthesized by novel chemical route, was investigated. Scaffold surface morphology and its internal structures were studied by optical and scanning electron microscopy. The effect of thermal-induced degradation on polymers properties at various 3D printing processing parameters was analysed by gel-permeation chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry and mechanical testing. It was shown that optimizing experimental parameters the developed methods of thermo-extrusion 3D printing enable effective polymer scaffolds fabrication in accordance with their 3D computer model without significant changes of physicochemical properties of initial materials.