Indirect three‐dimensional printing: A method for fabricating polyurethane‐urea based cardiac scaffolds

Abstract

Biomaterial scaffolds are a key part of cardiac tissue engineering therapies. The group has recently synthesized a novel polycaprolactone based polyurethane‐urea copolymer that showed improved mechanical properties compared with its previously published counterparts. The aim of this study was to explore whether indirect three‐dimensional (3D) printing could provide a means to fabricate this novel, biodegradable polymer into a scaffold suitable for cardiac tissue engineering. Indirect 3D printing was carried out through printing water dissolvable poly(vinyl alcohol) porogens in three different sizes based on a wood‐stack model, into which a polyurethane‐urea solution was pressure injected. The porogens were removed, leading to soft polyurethane‐urea scaffolds with regular tubular pores. The scaffolds were characterized for their compressive and tensile mechanical behavior; and their degradation was monitored for 12 months under simulated physiological conditions. Their compatibility with cardiac myocytes and performance in novel cardiac engineering‐related techniques, such as aggregate seeding and bi‐directional perfusion, was also assessed. The scaffolds were found to have mechanical properties similar to cardiac tissue, and good biocompatibility with cardiac myocytes. Furthermore, the incorporated cells preserved their phenotype with no signs of de‐differentiation. The constructs worked well in perfusion experiments, showing enhanced seeding efficiency. © 2016 The Authors Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 1912–1921, 2016.

Development and Characterization of a Parallelizable Perfusion Bioreactor for 3D Cell Culture

“…For instance, numerous studies show a higher matrix deposition or upregulation of relevant genes in comparison to static culture conditions when bone precursor cells are exposed to fluid shear stress [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. Although several tailor-made [ 10 , 11 , 44 ] and commercially available [ 45 , 46 , 47 ] perfusion systems were developed and successfully used, there is a lack of automated sensor-controlled systems that allow the cultivation of multiple independent replicates under different conditions.…”

Polyurethanes for Medical Use

“…is study shows that indirect 3D printing could provide the means to fabricate this innovative biodegradable polymer into a sca old suitable for cardiac tissue engineering [80].…”

Engineering inkjet bioprinting processes toward translational therapies

“…For engineering hard tissue such as bone, calcium phosphate‐based ceramics and cements play an important role. In addition, hydrogels such as agar (Landers, Hubner, Schmelzeisen, & Mulhaupt, ), agarose (Fedorovich, De Wijn, Verbout, Alblas, & Dhert, ), collagen (Lee et al, ), gelatin (Hernandez‐Cordova et al, ), alginate (Cohen, Malone, Lipson, & Bonassar, ), and mixtures of alginate and gelatin (Huang et al, ) have also been used.…”