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3D/4D Printing for Biomedical Applications: Materials, Techniques and Emerging Trends

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomaterials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2024) | Viewed by 1321

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, Via Girolamo Caruso, 16, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Interests: 4D and 3D printing and bioprinting; in vitro models; medical devices; EU regulations

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

3D printing technologies offer ground-braking tools that enable the fabrication of highly customizable, reproducible, and accurate structures for different biomedical applications, including tissue engineering, biosensors, and medical devices. In the last few decades, several innovations have been introduced in the field of 3D printing biomedical, such as multi-material and multi-scale 3D printing, bioprinting, and 4D printing. Indeed, 4D printing, which integrates the 4th dimension (i.e., time) into 3D printed structures, enables us to fabricate dynamic structures that are programmed to change their properties and shape according to environmental stimuli (e.g., heat, humidity, electric fields, etc.). Moreover, 4D-printed objects accomplish their function without using external driving mechanisms, instead relying on safer and contactless actuation, enabling their use in harsh environments, such as the human body.

In this Special Issue, we will focus on original research papers and comprehensive reviews, reporting the most innovative works in the 3D and 4D printing fields with regard to their biomedical applications. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

  • Design and fabrication of scaffolds for tissue engineering applications via bioprinting;
  • Innovative bioprinting approaches (e.g., in situ bioprinting, AI-enhanced bioprinting, etc.);
  • Design of new stimuli-responsive biomaterials for use in 4D printing;
  • Design and manufacture of medical devices via 4D printing;
  • Development of active scaffolds via 4D printing.

Dr. Irene Chiesa
Guest Editor

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. Materials 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 2600 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 printing
  • 4D printing
  • bioprinting
  • scaffolding
  • medical devices
  • in vitro models
  • biomaterials

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 5109 KiB  
Article
Towards the Clinical Translation of 3D PLGA/β-TCP/Mg Composite Scaffold for Cranial Bone Regeneration
by Yongsen Zhou, Jingqi Hu, Binhan Li, Jingjing Xia, Ting Zhang and Zhuo Xiong
Materials 2024, 17(2), 352; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17020352 - 10 Jan 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1077
Abstract
Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of 3D porous scaffolds with excellent biocompatibility, tunable porosity, and pore interconnectivity, sufficient mechanical strength, controlled biodegradability, and favorable osteogenesis for improved results in cranioplasty. However, clinical translation of these scaffolds has lagged far behind, mainly [...] Read more.
Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of 3D porous scaffolds with excellent biocompatibility, tunable porosity, and pore interconnectivity, sufficient mechanical strength, controlled biodegradability, and favorable osteogenesis for improved results in cranioplasty. However, clinical translation of these scaffolds has lagged far behind, mainly because of the absence of a series of biological evaluations. Herein, we designed and fabricated a composite 3D porous scaffold composed of poly (lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA), β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP), and Mg using the low-temperature deposition manufacturing (LDM) technique. The LDM-engineered scaffolds possessed highly porous and interconnected microstructures with a porosity of 63%. Meanwhile, the scaffolds exhibited mechanical properties close to that of cancellous bone, as confirmed by the compression tests. It was also found that the original composition of scaffolds could be maintained throughout the fabrication process. Particularly, two important biologic evaluations designed for non-active medical devices, i.e., local effects after implantation and subchronic systemic toxicity tests, were conducted to evaluate the local and systemic toxicity of the scaffolds. Additionally, the scaffolds exhibited significant higher mRNA levels of osteogenic genes compared to control scaffolds, as confirmed by an in vitro osteogenic differentiation test of MC3T3-E1 cells. Finally, we demonstrated the improved cranial bone regeneration performance of the scaffolds in a rabbit model. We envision that our investigation could pave the way for translating the LDM-engineered composite scaffolds into clinical products for cranial bone regeneration. Full article
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