High-Throughput Manufacture of 3D Fiber Scaffolds for Regenerative Medicine

Engineered scaffolds used to regenerate mammalian tissues should recapitulate the underlying fibrous architecture of native tissue to achieve comparable function. Current fibrous scaffold fabrication processes, such as electrospinning and three-dimensional (3D) printing, possess application-specific...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tissue engineering. Part C, Methods Methods, 2020-07, Vol.26 (7), p.364-374
Main Authors: Shirwaiker, Rohan A, Fisher, Matthew B, Anderson, Bruce, Schuchard, Karl G, Warren, Paul B, Maze, Benoit, Grondin, Pierre, Ligler, Frances S, Pourdeyhimi, Behnam
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biocompatible Materials - chemistry
Dogs
Fibers
Hernia - therapy
Herniorrhaphy - methods
Methods
Methods Articles
Polymers - chemistry
Printing, Three-Dimensional - instrumentation
Regeneration
Regenerative Medicine
Tissue engineering
Tissue Engineering - methods
Tissue Scaffolds - chemistry
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Summary:Engineered scaffolds used to regenerate mammalian tissues should recapitulate the underlying fibrous architecture of native tissue to achieve comparable function. Current fibrous scaffold fabrication processes, such as electrospinning and three-dimensional (3D) printing, possess application-specific advantages, but they are limited either by achievable fiber sizes and pore resolution, processing efficiency, or architectural control in three dimensions. As such, a gap exists in efficiently producing clinically relevant, anatomically sized scaffolds comprising fibers in the 1–100 μm range that are highly organized. This study introduces a new high-throughput, additive fibrous scaffold fabrication process, designated in this study as 3D melt blowing (3DMB). The 3DMB system described in this study is modified from larger nonwovens manufacturing machinery to accommodate the lower volume, high-cost polymers used for tissue engineering and implantable biomedical devices and has a fiber collection component that uses adaptable robotics to create scaffolds with predetermined geometries. The fundamental process principles, system design, and key parameters are described, and two examples of the capabilities to create scaffolds for biomedical engineering applications are demonstrated.
ISSN:1937-3384
1937-3392
DOI:10.1089/ten.tec.2020.0098