Core/Shell Bioprinting of Complex Tissue Equivalents
Michael Gelinsky,
Professor,
Technical University Dresden
Extrusion-based additive manufacturing (“3D plotting”) is a very versatile technology as in principal any pasty material can be utilised. I addition, the printers used for 3D plotting are less complicated and therefore also cheaper in comparison to e.g. laser-based systems. Nowadays a variety of suitable biomaterials – biopolymer hydrogels, composites but also a pasty calcium phosphate bone cement (CPC) – are available for 3D plotting of scaffolds as well as for biofabrication purposes. The lecture will give an overview of current developments, focussing on the combination of two different materials extruded either in alternating or in a core/shell fashion. Especially if stiff, highly concentrated alginate-based hydrogels or CPC are used as shell material mechanically robust and open-porous constructs with tailored properties can be manufactured. By loading shell and core part with different drugs or growth factors dual release systems with adjustable release properties can be realised. Finally, also living cells can be suspended in the soft biopolymer hydrogels, acting as core material in core/shell bioprinting, leading to stable tissue engineering constructs. In the lecture opportunities and limitations of this novel technology will be described.
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