Novel three-dimensional printing of poly(ester urethane) scaffolds for biomedical applications

LORES, NAYLA J.; HUNG, XAVIER; TALOU, MARIANO H.; ABRAHAM, GUSTAVO A.; CARACCIOLO, PABLO C.

POLYMERS FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES

JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD

Año: 2021 vol. 32 p. 3309 - 3321

1042-7147

Tissue engineering requires highly porous complex structures with interconnectedpores and tightly controlled pore sizes, added to customized production. Additivemanufacturing (AM) is nowadays one of the most suitable technologies for the preparationof structures with strictly defined complex three-dimensional architectures.Moreover, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging can be employedto obtain personalized medical devices. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one ofthe most common, easiest, and cost-effective AM techniques to obtain 3D objectsfrom a wide variety of materials. However, there is a lack of bioresorbable materialsthat can fit the increasing demand for biomedical applications requiring stiff elastomers.In this work, a series of bioresorbable segmented poly(ester urethanes) (SPEU)with high hard segment content was synthesized and physicochemically characterized.The materials with higher thermal stability were processed into homogeneousfilaments by hot-melt extrusion with no need for additives nor plasticizers. These filamentswere evaluated for FDM, and structures with controlled porosity, filamentdiameter, and in-plane pore size could be easily obtained by modifying the printingparameters. Regarding SPEU mechanical properties, the obtained scaffolds could bepromising for cartilage tissue engineering applications.