Characteristics of the Porous Structure Developed Through Additive Manufacturing using Polyamide for Tissue Engineering Applications

Abstract

Additive manufacturing methods give the opportunity to produce interesting, new structures with a more complicated topology than would be possible using traditional methods. Methods: Using the selective laser sintering method, a disk with a high roughness and porous structure was produced. Studies of material surface were performed on microscopic devices. An in vitro experiment was performed on the manufactured disk using mice fibroblastic cells. Results: The designed shape enabled the growth of the cell culture in the disc pores and ensured impermeability of the disc base. Based on average viability 79%, which is close to reference well (80%), preliminary results confirmed that the manufactured structures create sufficiently comfortable conditions for the cell cultures without the need to design its internal topography. Conclusions: Controlling the production parameters of SLS printing allows to obtain structures characterized by spatial and surface porosity without designing inner geometry of the structure. Polyamide 2200 (PA2200) powder with a laser beam, offers new possibilities for producing surfaces used in the tissue engineering, bioreactors, and microfluidics devices.

Keywords

• cell culture
• 3d printing
• sls method
• biomechanical engineering