Fabrication of three-dimensional mPEG-PCL-mPEG scaffolds combined with cell-laden gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogels using thermal extrusion coupled with photo curable technique

It has remained a great challenge to design a tissue engineering scaffold for tissue regeneration, which should be suitable for cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. One possible solution may be to fabricate the scaffolds with the stable mechanical property, controllable pore size and good interconnectivity, and allowing homogenous cell distribution. This study described the key technology of fabricating three-dimensional (3D) mPEG-PCL-mPEG scaffolds combined with cell-laden gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogels. Firstly, a dual-nozzle 3D printing system was successfully developed using thermal extrusion coupled with a photo curable technique. Then, the triblock material mPEG-PCL-mPEG was synthesized and evaluated. Subsequently, the fabricated 3D mPEG-PCL-mPEG scaffolds were injected with cell-laden GelMA hydrogels. Finally, the mPEG-PCL-mPEG scaffolds were evaluated. The evaluation results showed that this 3D mPEG-PCL-mPEG scaffolds technology is a potentially powerful approach, which may be used in a variety of tissue engineering applications.