Micro-structured polymer scaffolds fabricated by direct laser writing for tissue engineering

Abstract

This work presents the latest results on direct laser writing of polymeric materials for tissue engineering applications. A femtosecond Yb:KGW laser (300 fs, 200 kHz, 515 nm) was used as a light source for non-linear lithography. Fabrication was implemented in various photosensitive polymeric materials, such as: hybrid organic-inorganic sol-gel based on silicon-zirconium oxides, commercial ORMOCER® class photoresins. These materials were structured via multi-photon polymerization technique with submicron resolution. Porous three-dimensional scaffolds for artificial tissue engineering were fabricated with constructed system and were up to several millimeters in overall size with 10 to 100 μm internal pores. Biocompatibility of the used materials was tested in primary rabbit muscle-derived stem cell culture in vitro and using laboratory rats in vivo. This interdisciplinary study suggests that proposed technique and materials are suitable for tissue engineering applications.

Optimization of Femtosecond Laser Polymerized Structural Niches to Control Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Fate in Culture

“…Previously we had fabricated scaffolds in the same SZ2080 photoresist but with Michler's ketone (Bis) photoinitiator [17], which showed strong autofluorescence, hindering the characterization of the fluorescent markers for cell proliferation (Figure 1). The Irg-based photoresist used here was found to be biocompatible [20] similarly to the previously studied Bis-SZ2080, but with greatly reduced auto-fluorescence. These results are in agreement with previous work showing that it is the addition of the photoinitiator which influences both the photosensitivity and fluorescence of the photoresist [18,21].…”

Design, Fabrication and Computational Characterization of a 3D Micro-Valve Built by Multi-Photon Polymerization

“…The fabrication of 3D structures by DLW has been described by several groups [11,12]. The material used to fabricate the micro-valve was a home-made zirconium silicate [13].…”

Microfabrication of 3D metallic interconnects via direct laser writing and chemical metallization

“…The schematics and details of the nanophotonic system employed in this work are described elsewhere [21] , respectively (values are calculated for 100 × 1.4 NA (numerical aperture) and 20 × 0.8 NA objectives, which were the most practical for the fabrication of the microstructures). Sample translation velocities were 50 μm/s and 500 μm/s, respectively.…”

“…As the majority of the materials are bio-compatible [16,17], this approach was employed for the manufacturing of artificial scaffolds for cell proliferation studies [18,19], medical implants for tissue engineering [20,21] as well as regenerative medicine [22,23]. In all of the mentioned examples the materials were passive polymers sensitized only with a photoinitiator responsible for the efficient photostructuring [24].…”