What is it about?
Currently FFF-based 3D printers are used for fabricating objects, and femtosecond (ultrashort pulsed) laser induced ablation (selective material removal by instant evaporation) is employed for precise material microfabrication. What if we combine the best of both of these two worlds? Why not to use 3D printed structures as three-dimensional substrates for laser manufacturing? Widely used PLA material is biodegradable, thus manufacturing of microporous structures enables the creation of 3D custom made bioresorbable implants.
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Why is it important?
Vilnius University Laser technology and biochemistry scientists joined forces to combine straightforward fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing with advanced direct laser writing (DLW) for the manufacturing of biodegradable scaffolds with sub-cellular spatial precision. Such microporous scaffolds fabricated from PLA were seeded with rabbit stem cells and initial tests revealed not only sufficient biocompatibility, but also efficient proliferation and a trend to differentiate appropriately. This shows great potential in biomedical surgery applications, such as restoration of hard tissue (reconstruction of bone) or soft tissue (hernia treatment).
Perspectives
Future work is targeted towards chemical modification of pure PLA material for enhanced biological properties, mechanical tests of such 3D microporous scaffolds and their preclinical applications with laboratory animals. Authors of the work are open for possible cooperation to implement this technique into Lab-on-Chip (LOC) and Micro-Total-Analysis-Systems (μ-TAS). More details can be found in a freshly published peer reviewed scientific article at an open access peer reviewed journal MicroMachines: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/5/4/839. Discuss this report in the 3D printed hard tissue implant forum thread on 3DPB.com.
Dr Mangirdas Malinauskas
Vilnius University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: 3D Microporous Scaffolds Manufactured via Combination of Fused Filament Fabrication and Direct Laser Writing Ablation, Micromachines, September 2014, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/mi5040839.
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