Speaker
Description
There is much interest in biofabrication of tubular constructs for repair and regeneration of several tissues in the human body, such as blood vessels, nerve conduits, gastro-intestinal tract, and bile duct, among others. The rapidly growing field of additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies is offering new routes for the processing of biomaterials for the fabrication of implants and tissue scaffolds of complex architecture, which are personalized to meet the patient’s need. However, the fabrication of thin-walled, hollow tubes of small diameter using soft polymers can be challenging with the currently available strategies of 3D printing. 4D printing is a frontier technology in this field which involves the stimulated shape-morphing ability of the 3D-printed parts. Our group is actively exploring 4D printing approaches to prepare tubular constructs using soft biomedical polymers prepared by extrusion and light-based 3D printing techniques.
We engineered an alginate-based bilayered hydrogel system with defined swelling behaviors, which demonstrated excellent printability in extrusion-based 3D printing and programmed shape deformations post-printing. These 4D-printed hydrogels were used as deployable nerve conduits for the healing of peripheral nerves in rats. In more recent work, we have improved the bioactivity of the nerve conduit by incorporating carbon nanotubes in the hydrogel matrix.
In a different approach, we utilized a single shape memory thermoplastic polymer (SMP), PLMC (polylactide-co-trimethylene carbonate), to achieve programmable shape deformation through anisotropic design and infill angles encoded during 3D printing. Rectangular 2D sheets could self-roll into complete hollow tubes. Furthermore, shape memory properties were demonstrated post-shape change to exhibit dual shape morphing at temperatures close to physiological levels to yield bioresorbable tubes with cellularized lumens for potential use as vascular grafts with improved long-term patency.
We also developed the first cell-laden 4D-bioprinted scaffold prepared by digital light processing (DLP) from a bioink consisting of a blend of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) and poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate (PEGDM) operated with visible light (405 nm). DLP-bioprinted gels can change shape-to-complex constructs in response to cell-friendly stimuli, such as hydration, to yield a cell-laden hydrogel tube from a flat sheet.
Taken together, this talk will highlight recent developments in our group that utilize advanced 4D printing for preparing hollow tubular constructs for soft tissue repair and regeneration.
Relevant Publications:
- A. Nain, A. Joshi, S. Debnath, S. Choudhury, J. Thomas, J. Satija, C.C. Huang, K. Chatterjee: “4D printed nanoengineered super bioactive hydrogel scaffold with programmable deformation for potential bifurcated vascular channel construction” Journal of Materials Chemistry B 2024, 12, 7604–7617
- S. Choudhury, A. Joshi, V. Baghel, G.K. Ananthasuresh, S. Asthana, S. Homer-Vanniasinkam, K. Chatterjee: “Design-encoded dual shape-morphing and shape-memory in 4D-printed polymer parts toward cellularized vascular grafts” Journal of Materials Chemistry B 2024, 12: 5678-5689
- A. Joshi, S. Choudhury, V.S. Baghel, S. Ghosh, S. Gupta, D. Lahiri, G.K. Ananthasuresh, K. Chatterjee: “4D printed programmable shape-morphing hydrogels as intraoperative self-folding nerve conduits for sutureless neurorrhaphy” Advanced Healthcare Materials 2023, 12: 2300701
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