3D printing of artificial blood vessel: study on multi-parameter optimization design for vascular molding effect in alginate and gelatin

Abstract

3D printing has emerged as one of the modern tissue engineering techniques that could potentially form scaffolds (with or without cells), which is useful in treating cardiovascular diseases. This technology has attracted extensive attention due to its possibility of curing disease in tissue engineering and organ regeneration. In this paper, we have developed a novel rotary forming device, prepared an alginate–gelatin solution for the fabrication of vessel-like structures, and further proposed a theoretical model to analyze the parameters of motion synchronization. Using this rotary forming device, we firstly establish a theoretical model to analyze the thickness under the different nozzle extrusion speeds, nozzle speeds, and servo motor speeds. Secondly, the experiments with alginate–gelatin solution are carried out to construct the vessel-like structures under all sorts of conditions. The experiment results show that the thickness cannot be adequately predicted by the theoretical model and the thickness can be controlled by changing the parameters. Finally, the optimized parameters of thickness have been adjusted to estimate the real thickness in 3D printing.