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A 4-Axis Technique for Three-Dimensional Printing of an Artificial Trachea

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Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Aims and scope

Abstract

Background:

Several types of three-dimensional (3D)-printed tracheal scaffolds have been reported. Nonetheless, most of these studies concentrated only on application of the final product to an in vivo animal study and could not show the effects of various 3D printing methods, materials, or parameters for creation of an optimal 3D-printed tracheal scaffold. The purpose of this study was to characterize polycaprolactone (PCL) tracheal scaffolds 3D-printed by the 4-axis fused deposition modeling (FDM) method and determine the differences in the scaffold depending on the additive manufacturing method.

Methods:

The standard 3D trachea model for FDM was applied to a 4-axis FDM scaffold and conventional FDM scaffold. The scaffold morphology, mechanical properties, porosity, and cytotoxicity were evaluated. Scaffolds were implanted into a 7 × 10-mm artificial tracheal defect in rabbits. Four and 8 weeks after the operation, the reconstructed sites were evaluated by bronchoscopic, radiological, and histological analyses.

Results:

The 4-axis FDM provided greater dimensional accuracy and was significantly closer to CAD software-based designs with a predefined pore size and pore interconnectivity as compared to the conventional scaffold. The 4-axis tracheal scaffold showed superior mechanical properties.

Conclusion:

We suggest that the 4-axis FDM process is more suitable for the development of an accurate and mechanically superior trachea scaffold.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Hallym University Research Fund, and Grant (16172MFDS334) from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2016, Republic of Korea.

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Author notes

  1. Hae Sang Park and Hyun Jung Park equally contributed to this work as the first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, 77 Sakju-ro, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do, 24253, Republic of Korea

    Hae Sang Park & Chan Hum Park

  2. Nano-Bio Regenerative Medical Institute, College of Medicine, Hallym University, 1 Hallymdaehak-gil, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do, 24252, Republic of Korea

    Hae Sang Park, Hyun Jung Park, Ji Seung Lee, Young Jin Lee, Ye Been Seo, Do Yeon Kim, Olatunji Ajiteru, Ok Joo Lee & Chan Hum Park

  3. Department of Nature-Inspired Nano Convergence System, Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM), 156 Gajeongbuk-ro,Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34103, Republic of Korea

    Junhee Lee & Pureum Kim

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  1. Hae Sang Park
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  2. Hyun Jung Park
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  10. Ok Joo Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chan Hum Park.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the institutional review board of Hallym University (IRB 2016-64), Chuncheon, Korea.

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Park, H.S., Park, H.J., Lee, J. et al. A 4-Axis Technique for Three-Dimensional Printing of an Artificial Trachea. Tissue Eng Regen Med 15, 415–425 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13770-018-0136-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13770-018-0136-8

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