Resorbable and biocompatible scaffolds made of a bacterial biopolymer.

NYGAARD, DAIANA; BERTUOLA, MARCOS; YASHCHUK, OXANA; HERMIDA, ELIDA

Dresden

Conferencia; 7th. International Conference on Cellular Materials; 2022

3D printing allows to build scaffolds for tissue regeneration with controlled porosity. By adjusting the percentage and pattern of infill, and the printing velocity, scaffolds can be manufactured with the porosity that mimics the extracellular matrix (ECM) of each type of tissue (bone, cartilage, skin, etc.). The elastic modulus of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV), a biodegradable polymer produced by microorganisms, make it suitable to resemble the ECM of cartilage and bone. In fact, the excellent combination of its attributes: thermoplastic, resorbable and biocompatible, encourages 3D printing of PHBV-products for biomedical applications. Fused deposition modeling with PHBV filaments has the drawback of the narrow working window between the melting point (160°C) and the thermal decomposition temperature ( 220°C). Thus, the aim of this work is to formulate a viscous ink made of PHBV that allows to build scaffolds using a bioprinter.