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3D and 4D Printing of Polymers for Tissue Engineering Applications

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A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomacromolecules, Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2023) | Viewed by 12898

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Hongbo Zhang

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Guest Editor

School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
Interests: 3D bioprinting; bio-inks; bionic scaffolds
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Wenjun (Chris) Zhang

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Guest Editor

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A9, Canada
Interests: design; manufacturing; MEMS; dynamic systems; biorobotics; biosensors; bioacutators
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

3D printing of bionic scaffolds, cells, and bioactive compounds has flourished over the past ten years. The 3D printing technique has developed fast, including micro-extrusion bioprinting, inkjet bioprinting, laser-assisted bioprinting, and scaffold-free spheroid-based bioprinting, which offers great promise in the field of regenerative medicine and drug delivery. Meanwhile, new functional bio-inks and materials have been developed. Furthermore, the 3D bioprinting of stem cells, such as human-induced pluripotent stem cells, is driving a paradigm shift in tissue regeneration and the modeling of human disease, representing an unlimited cell source for tissue regeneration and the study of human disease. Thus, an in-depth understanding of 3D printing processes and physical, biological, and/or digital cues is highly relevant to the performance and development of 3D bio-printed products. Both original contributions and comprehensive reviews are welcome. With a focus on biomedical applications of 3D printing, potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

3D printing of bionic scaffolds;
3D bioprinting of stem cells;
3D bioprinting of vasculature system;
3D bioprinting of disease models;
3D bioprinting of the digestive system;
3D bioprinting of artificial organs;
3D bioprinting and microfluidics for organ-on chips;
3D bioprinting techniques
Functional bio-inks

Prof. Dr. Hongbo Zhang
Prof. Dr. Wenjun (Chris) Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

3D bioprinting
bio-inks
bionic scaffolds
modeling of human diseases
sustainable delivery

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 1281 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Preliminary Experimental Study of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-To-PDMS Bonding Using Oxygen Plasma Treatment Incorporating Isopropyl Alcohol

by Anthony Tony, Ildiko Badea, Chun Yang, Yuyi Liu, Kemin Wang, Shih-Mo Yang and Wenjun Zhang

Polymers 2023, 15(4), 1006; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15041006 - 17 Feb 2023

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4917

Abstract

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a widely used material for soft lithography and microfabrication. PDMS exhibits some promising properties suitable for building microfluidic devices; however, bonding PDMS to PDMS and PDMS to other materials for multilayer structures in microfluidic devices is still challenging due to the hydrophobic nature of the surface of PDMS. This paper presents a simple yet effective method to increase the bonding strength for PDMS-to-PDMS using isopropyl alcohol (IPA). The experiment was carried out to evaluate the bonding strength for both the natural-cured and the heat-cured PDMS layer. The results show the effectiveness of our approach in terms of the improved irreversible bonding strength, up to 3.060 MPa, for the natural-cured PDMS and 1.373 MPa for the heat-cured PDMS, while the best bonding strength with the existing method in literature is 1.9 MPa. The work is preliminary because the underlying mechanism is only speculative and open for future research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D and 4D Printing of Polymers for Tissue Engineering Applications)

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14 pages, 4935 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Photothermal Sensitive 3D Printed Biodegradable Polyester Scaffolds with Polydopamine Coating for Bone Tissue Engineering

by Zuoxun Huang, Junfeng Li, Xiaohu Chen, Qing Yang, Xiyang Zeng, Ruqing Bai and Li Wang

Polymers 2023, 15(2), 381; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15020381 - 11 Jan 2023

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1767

Abstract

Biodegradable scaffolds with photothermal effects and customizable pore structures are a hot topic of research in the field of bone repair. In this study, we prepared porous scaffolds using poly(lactic acid) (PLA) as the raw material and customized the pore structure with 3D printing technology. First, we investigated the effect of pore structure on the mechanical properties of this 3D PLA scaffold. Subsequently, the optimally designed PLA scaffolds were coated with PDA to enhance their hydrophilicity and bioactivity. XRD (X-ray diffraction), FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) and EDS (Energy dispersive spectroscopy) results indicated that PDA was successfully coated on the surface of PLA scaffolds. SEM (Scanning electron microscopy) micrographs showed that the surface of the PDA/PLA scaffolds became rough. WCA (water contact angle) confirmed that the material has enhanced hydrophilic properties. PDA/PLA scaffolds exhibit a tunable photothermal effect under NIR (near infrared) irradiation. The 3D-printed PLA/PDA scaffolds have remarkable potential as an alternative material for repairing bone defects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D and 4D Printing of Polymers for Tissue Engineering Applications)

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Review

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18 pages, 1225 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Additive Manufacturing Approach to Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) Microfluidic Devices: Review and Future Directions

by Anthony Tony, Ildiko Badea, Chun Yang, Yuyi Liu, Garth Wells, Kemin Wang, Ruixue Yin, Hongbo Zhang and Wenjun Zhang

Polymers 2023, 15(8), 1926; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15081926 - 18 Apr 2023

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 5355

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the literature for fabricating PDMS microfluidic devices by employing additive manufacturing (AM) processes. AM processes for PDMS microfluidic devices are first classified into (i) the direct printing approach and (ii) the indirect printing approach. The scope of the review covers both approaches, though the focus is on the printed mold approach, which is a kind of the so-called replica mold approach or soft lithography approach. This approach is, in essence, casting PDMS materials with the mold which is printed. The paper also includes our on-going effort on the printed mold approach. The main contribution of this paper is the identification of knowledge gaps and elaboration of future work toward closing the knowledge gaps in fabrication of PDMS microfluidic devices. The second contribution is the development of a novel classification of AM processes from design thinking. There is also a contribution in clarifying confusion in the literature regarding the soft lithography technique; this classification has provided a consistent ontology in the sub-field of the fabrication of microfluidic devices involving AM processes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D and 4D Printing of Polymers for Tissue Engineering Applications)

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