3D-printing of scaffold within bionic vascular network applicable to tissue engineering

Abstract

In recent years, with the development of biological 3D printing technology, especially the development of soft tissue engineering, new hope has been brought to solve clinical problems such as soft tissue defects and functional loss. The blood vessels network is essential in large pieces of tissue because blood can nourish the ambient cells proliferation and metabolism. Currently, most bio-printing technologies can only print single-size micro-channels, which affect the normal proliferation and metabolism of internal cells. In our previous study, a multi-level and multi-size bionic vascular network was molded by mould. The bionic structure could promote cells endothelialization but the preparation process was complex and the precision was very low. In this paper, a 3D vascular network/soft tissue and multi-material dual-nozzle cells printing platform is developed and then, a FDM 3D collaborative printing method is proposed to fabricate self-assembled scaffold within multi-level and multi-size bionic vascular network. The forming process is fast and sterile with the high-precision self-assembled scaffold structure printed. It is envisioned that this technology can be used to study the basis of composite tissue technology with multi-material supply and multi-nozzle printing, and to establish the theoretical basis of the correlation between vascular/soft tissue symbiosis system and the performance of artificial soft tissue.