Design and development of open source portable multi-functional three-dimensional bio-printing extrusion system for hydrogel-based scaffolds fabrication

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) bio-printing has been shown up as a state of the art and creative technological solution to nowadays tissue engineering and stem cell research challenges toward human tissue regeneration and construction of artificial living organs. Thereby, using hydrogel-based bio-inks to 3D print living microenvironments is a crucial strategy to reconstruct basically functional living scaffolds in order to shape human living organs based on digital 3D computer-aided design (CAD) inputs. The focus of this paper lies on design and development of a portable multi-functional 3D bio-printing extruder for fabrication of hydrogel-based highly complex living tissues using advanced methods invented along this study. The presented article, precisely optimizes the process of fabricating 3D printed scaffolds by redesigning of an integrated gel-extrusion system capable of controlling the adjustability of thermal condition of bio-inks. Also a UV crosslink module is utilized in the bottom of the extruder to cure hydrogel scaffolds consisting of photo-reacting agents to provide a novel bio-printing experience for end users. As a result, the integrated extrusion system is easily portable and compatible with almost any computer numerical control (CNC) machine. Therefore, it could be simply installed on or removed from any CNC machine or fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing system considering that all the control units remain adjustable. The whole system parameters and the performance of tissue fabrication regarding this developed portable multi-functional 3D bio-printing extruder have been tested and practically confirmed. The thermal control system performance has also been simulated using finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods. Thus, certified documents have been provided and depicted in this paper.