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Bio-Scaffold Printer for Tissue Engineering
Tissue engineering and tissue regeneration becomes a promising approach e.g. to cure severe bone injuries. Artificial tissue grown from differentiable cells often needs to get in a particular 3-dimensional shape for implantation. Bio scaffolds can serve as a mechanical support for artificial tissues, further supporting supply of the cells and removal of the metabolites. Usually bio-scaffolds consist of a porous material to be seeded with differentiable cells. After implantation in the host organism the scaffold material is supposed to degrade, enabling uninterrupted layers of artificially grown tissue. Learn more [..
Instrumentation
| The micropipetting system Nano-Plotter provides the robotic platform for the new bio-scaffold printer. The modular approach of the Nano-Plotter combines different dispensing techniques, a flexible software and a high-precision XYZ robotic with a travel range in the A3 format. |  |
| Pressure driven line dispensing of up to three different components (left image). An accurate XY offset compensation is given by individually lowering cartridges. The exact dispense trajectory of each cartridge is monitored by a camera system (right picture). |  |  | ||
Examples
The GeSiM bio-scaffold printer was used to dispense collagen in a suspension of chitosan. Collagen suspended in a solution of chitosan in diluted acid was filled into a cartridge. The suspension was printed into a solution of sodium hydroxide in ethanol. 80 mm/s chart speed and three bar cartridge pressure were applied to print single lines of the polymer dispersion. [1]
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Another project successfully built scaffolds from calcium phosphate bone cement. Strands of 600 micron diameter were produced. Human stem cells adhered succesfully and differentiated to osteoblasts in an osteogenic media. [2] The calcium phosphate bone cement is manufactured and sold by the Dresden company InnoTERE GmbH . | ||||
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| Scaffolds from Calciumphospate bone cement (InnoTERE GmbH) Size: 36 mm x 36 mm, inner area 30 mm x 30 mm, mesh pitch: 1 mm Left side: Height 5mm, strand thickness 0.4 mm, start and stop points of each strand are visible, Center: Height 2.5 mm, strand thickness 0.3 mm, start and end points are covered by a separate strand, Right: Side view of a scaffold grid | ||||
Product Information on Bio-Scaffold-Printer
Nano-Plotter data sheet (Piezoelectric version)
References
| [1] Different Strategies for Production and Characterization of Collagen-Chitosan-Scaffolds, H. Nitzsche et.al.,Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg | |
| | [2] 3D-Plotten von Calciumphosphat-Zementpasten: ein neues Verfahren zur Herstellung von Biokeramiken mit definierten Geometrien, M. Gelinsky et.al. (German) |
