FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CELL-LADEN 3D PRINTED HYBRID SCAFFOLDS FOR ESOPHAGEAL TISSUE REPAIR

Tissue engineering (TE) provides promising results in restoring defected or diseased esophageal tissue functions. Nevertheless, existing fabrications are hardly used to achieve a suitable scaffold for esophageal TE. In this study, a hybrid porous scaffold consisting a layer of electrohydrodynamic jet printed (E-jetted) polycaprolactone (PCL) / Pluronic F127 (F127) fiber mesh, and a layer of electrohydrodynamic sprayed (E-sparyed) printed PCL film, has been applied for esophageal TE application. The E-jetted fiber mesh includes controlled and regular structure with micro-interconnected pores as well as geometrically anisotropic struts along the longitudinal direction. After scaffold fabrication, fibroblast was mixed with collagen before seeding. In addition, as a demonstration, HeLa cells were printed through piezoelectric inkjet printing on porous scaffold precisely with low shear stress to produce homogeneous cell-laden hybrid scaffold. These results demonstrate the potential of the hybrid 3D scaffold in organized tissue reconstruction for esophagus healing.

Author dc:creator

• WU BIN

• E-jetting, E-sparying, inkjet printing, esophagus, tissue engineering