BIO-PRINTING OF MULTI-HYDROGEL SCAFFOLDS FOR TISSUE ENGINEERING

Abstract

The shortage of organs and tissue transplantation had always been a hurdle to current medical technology. This eventually leads to the emergence of tissue engineering in attempt to circumvent the above shortcomings. Throughout the years, conventional tissue engineering approaches are no longer sufficient to solve the problems and more novel solutions are required, especially in terms of producing functional scaffolds for cells and tissue regeneration. Therefore, current research focuses on utilizing rapid prototyping manufacturing techniques to fabricate complex scaffolds layer-by-layer with the aid of computer design. In this dissertation, a multi-hydrogel bio-printing system based on a novel multi-nozzle design was developed to fabricate complicated three dimensional scaffolds directly for tissue engineering application. In comparison with previous methods, this system can flexibly fabricate hydrogel structure of different geometries at room temperature. The obtained multi-hydrogel constructs can have localized physical, chemical or biological properties. Moreover, cells encapsulated inside the printed scaffolds are viable from the fabrication process and can be immobilized at desired locations. These advantages provide a potential solution to construct tissue structure for artificial organs.