Trends in Biotechnology
Volume 22, Issue 12, December 2004, Pages 643-652
Journal home page for Trends in Biotechnology

Rapid prototyping in tissue engineering: challenges and potential

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2004.10.004Get rights and content

Tissue engineering aims to produce patient-specific biological substitutes in an attempt to circumvent the limitations of existing clinical treatments for damaged tissue or organs. The main regenerative tissue engineering approach involves transplantation of cells onto scaffolds. The scaffold attempts to mimic the function of the natural extracellular matrix, providing a temporary template for the growth of target tissues. Scaffolds should have suitable architecture and strength to serve their intended function. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the fabrication methods, including conventional, mainly manual, techniques and advanced processing methods such as rapid prototyping (RP) techniques. The potential and challenges of scaffold-based technology are discussed from the perspective of RP technology.

Section snippets

Conventional scaffold fabrication methods

Conventional methods for manufacturing scaffolds include solvent casting and particulate leaching [6], gas foaming [7], fiber meshes and fiber bonding [8], phase separation [9], melt molding [10], emulsion freeze drying [11], solution casting and freeze drying [12]. However, there are inherent limitations in these processing methods, which offer little capability precisely to control pore size, pore geometry, pore interconnectivity, spatial distribution of pores and construction of internal

Advanced scaffold-fabrication methods

RP is a common name for a group of techniques that can generate a physical model directly from computer-aided design data. It is an additive process in which each part is constructed in a layer-by-layer manner. Table 1 presents and compares the RP techniques that can be used to fabricate scaffolds directly or indirectly.

Challenges of RP in tissue engineering

In spite of the increasing interest of tissue engineers in the use of RP, there are several challenges that need to be addressed, namely the limited range of materials, the optimal scaffold design, the bioactivity of the scaffold, as well as the issues of cell seeding and vascularization. Each of the issues will be discussed in detail.

Bioactivity of RP-fabricated scaffolds

The interaction of cells with the scaffold is governed by both structural and chemical signaling molecules that have a decisive role for cell adhesion and the further behavior of cells after initial contact [62].

The extent of initial cell adhesion decides the number, size, shape and distribution of focal adhesion plaques formed on the cell membrane, which subsequently describes the size and shape of the cell-spreading area. The extent of spreading is crucial for further migratory, proliferation

New development: automation and direct organ fabrication

Automated design, development and characterization: RP has the potential of automating the design and fabrication of patient-specific scaffolds. In the work of Cheah et al. [72], computer-aided design (CAD) data manipulation techniques were utilized to develop a program algorithm that can be used to design scaffold internal architectures from a selection of open-celled polyhedral shapes. The automated scaffold assembly algorithm can be interfaced with various RP technologies, to achieve

Conclusion

The emergence of various different approaches in tissue engineering, ranging from a scaffold-based approach to scaffold-free layer-by-layer manufacturing technique, has highlighted the fact that the field of tissue engineering is still growing. Looking towards the future, RP technologies hold great potential in the context of scaffold fabrication. This technology enables the tissue engineer to have full control over the design, fabrication and modeling of the scaffold being constructed,

References (79)

  • T.H. Ang

    Fabrication of 3D chitosan-hydroxyapatite scaffolds using a robotic dispensing system

    Mater. Sci. Eng. C

    (2002)
  • R. Landers

    Rapid prototyping of scaffolds derived from thermoreversible hydrogels and tailored for applications in tissue engineering

    Biomaterials

    (2002)
  • R.G. Flemming

    Effects of synthetic micro- and nano-structured surfaces on cell behavior

    Biomaterials

    (1999)
  • C.X.F. Lam

    Scaffold development using 3D printing with a starch-based polymer

    Mater. Sci. Eng. C

    (2002)
  • N.K. Vail

    Materials for biomedical applications

    Mater. Des.

    (1999)
  • K.H. Tan

    Scaffold development using selective laser sintering of polyetheretherketone-hydroxyapatite biocomposite blends

    Biomaterials

    (2003)
  • S. Bose

    Pore size and pore volume effects on alumina and TCP ceramic scaffolds

    Mater. Sci. Eng. C

    (2003)
  • J.M. Taboas

    Indirect SFF fabrication of local and global porous, biomimetic and composite 3D polymer-ceramic scaffolds

    Biomaterials

    (2003)
  • E. Sachlos

    Novel collagen scaffolds with predefined internal morphology made by solid freeform fabrication

    Biomaterials

    (2003)
  • T.M.G. Chu

    Mechanical and in vivo performance of hydroxyapatite implants with controlled architectures

    Biomaterials

    (2002)
  • H. Sung

    The effect of scaffold degradation rate on three-dimensional cell growth and angiogenesis

    Biomaterials

    (2004)
  • C.S. Ranucci

    Control of hepatocyte function on collagen foams: sizing matrix pores for selective induction of 2-D and 3-D morphogenesis

    Biomaterials

    (2000)
  • I. Martin

    The role of bioreactors in tissue engineering

    Trends Biotechnol.

    (2004)
  • A.S. Goldstein

    Effect of convection on osteoblastic cell growth and function in biodegradable polymer foam scaffolds

    Biomaterials

    (2001)
  • Y. Sakai

    A novel poly-L-lactic acid scaffold that possesses a macroporous structure and a branching/joining three-dimensional flow channel network: its fabrication and application to perfusion culture of human hepatoma Hep G2 cells

    Mater. Sci. Eng. C

    (2004)
  • M.H. Sheridan

    Bioabsorbable polymer scaffolds for tissue engineering capable of sustained growth factor delivery

    J. Control. Release

    (2000)
  • V. Mironov

    Organ printing: computer-aided jet-based 3D tissue engineering

    Trends Biotechnol.

    (2003)
  • W. Tan et al.

    Layer-by-layer microfluidics for biomemitic three-dimensional structures

    Biomaterials

    (2004)
  • R. Langer et al.

    Tissue engineering

    Science

    (1993)
  • L. Sonal

    Tissue engineering and its potential impact on surgery

    World J. Surg.

    (2001)
  • J.M. Jennifer

    Transplantation of cells in matrices for tissue regeneration

    Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev.

    (1998)
  • B.S. Kim

    Development of biocompatible synthetic extracellular matrices for tissue engineering

    Trends Biotechnol.

    (2001)
  • L.E. Freed

    Biodegradable polymer scaffolds for tissue engineering

    Biotechnology (N. Y.)

    (1994)
  • H. Lo

    Fabrication of controlled release biodegradable foams by phase separation

    Tissue Eng.

    (1995)
  • J.I. Thomson

    Fabrication of biodegradable polymer scaffolds to engineering trabecular bone

    J. Biomater. Sci. Polym. Ed.

    (1995)
  • Y.Y. Hsu

    Effect of polymer foam morphology and density on kinetics of in vitro controlled release of ionized from compressed foam matrices

    J. Biomed Mater Sci

    (1997)
  • B.S. Kim et al.

    Engineering smooth muscle tissue with a predefined structure

    J. Biomed. Mater. Res.

    (1998)
  • W.L. Murphy

    Salt fusion: an approach to improve pore interconnectivity within tissue engineering scaffold

    Tissue Eng.

    (2002)
  • S. Yang

    The design of scaffolds for use in tissue engineering. Part I. Traditional factors

    Tissue Eng.

    (2001)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text