Perfusive and osmotic capabilities of 3D printed hollow tube for fabricating large-scaled muscle scaffold
ISSN: 1355-2546
Article publication date: 12 June 2019
Issue publication date: 8 January 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a new method for the fabrication of a large-scaled muscle scaffold containing an artificial hollow tube network, which may solve the problems of nutrient supply, oxygen exchange and metabolic waste removal.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, a ferric chloride structural strength-enhanced sodium alginate hollow tube was used to build the hollow tube network. Gelatin infill was then added to make a large alginate/gelation gel soft tissue scaffold. A pilot experiment was performed and an osmotic test platform was built to study the perfusion and osmotic ability of the 3D printed hollow tube. The essential fabrication parameters (printing velocity and gap) for building the vascular (i.e., hollow tube) network-contained scaffold were investigated. Moreover, cells in culture were spread within the gelation scaffold, and the circulation characteristics of the hollow tube network were studied.
Findings
The printed large-scaled scaffold that contained a ferric chloride structural strength-enhanced sodium alginate hollow tube had good perfusion ability. The osmotic distance of the hollow tube reached 3.7 mm in 8 h in this experiment.
Research limitations/implications
The osmotic distance was confirmed by perfusing a phenol solution; although it is more reliable to test for cell viability, this will be investigated in our later research.
Practical implications
This research may provide new insights in the area of tissue engineering for large-scaled vascularized scaffold fabrication.
Originality/value
This paper presents a new method for fabricating large-scaled scaffolds, and the perfusion ability and osmotic distance of a ferric chloride structural strength-enhanced sodium alginate hollow tube are shown.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51375371 and 51323007) and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No.2015AA020303).
Citation
Lian, Q., Zhou, L., Li, X., Mao, W. and Li, D. (2020), "Perfusive and osmotic capabilities of 3D printed hollow tube for fabricating large-scaled muscle scaffold", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-08-2017-0152
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited