Microarchitectured Carbon Structures as Innovative Tissue-Engineering Scaffolds

Carbon is a promising material for tissue engineering due to its excellent bioactivity, and electrical and mechanical properties. Herein, 3D microarchitectured carbon structures are presented toward scaffolds for cell culturing. The 3D carbon microlattice architectures are fabricated by fabricating 3D architectures of an epoxy polymer by stereolithography, followed by pyrolysis at 900 degrees C in a nitrogen environment. The pyrolysis causes 64-80% shrinkage of the microlattices resulting in the formation of carbon microlattices with a minimum lattice element thickness of 103.22 +/- 22.84 mu m. The carbon microlattices exhibit several microstructural deformations including wavy and bent lattices, and hollow bulges along the microlattices. These hollow bulges become the weakest section of the microlattice architectures under compressive load. The microlattice architectures exhibit elastic modulus around 2.28 MPa, which is within the range of elastic modulus suitable for application in human tissue repair. Furthermore, the in vitro cytocompatibility of the carbon materials is analyzed by culturing osteoblast-like murine MC3T3-E1 cells on the carbon microlattice architecture. The results show that cells are able to adhere and survive on the carbon microlattices with high viability. These results are promising for future applicability of the carbon architectures for personalized scaffolds for tissue engineering.