Fused filament fabrication of scaffolds for tissue engineering; how realistic is shape-memory? A review

Since the invention of additive manufacturing (AM) in the 1980s, great advances are today conceivable thanks to considerable evolution in recent years. Medicine, and particularly tissue engineering (TE), have high expecta-tions regarding AM, which allows the manufacturing of complex personalized parts. Among existing techniques, fused filament fabrication (FFF) is very promising in the biomedical field, due to its many advantages, partic-ularly for specific applications such as scaffolds for TE. This review, in interaction with biomedical, process and material sciences, aims to help researchers understand the importance of process parameterization (build orientation, raster angle, layer thickness, etc.) combined with an appropriate material choice, to develop opti-mized scaffolds using FFF. This review also reflects the state of existing advances and opens perspectives on the subject, especially with the use of biodegradable and biocompatible shape-memory polymers, the principle of which will be revisited and the few studies concerning shape-memory scaffolds will be gathered.

Automated summary

This review highlights the importance of fused filament fabrication in the medical field and emphasizes the necessity of process parameterization and material choice for developing optimized scaffolds. Furthermore, the review explores the use of biodegradable and biocompatible shape-memory polymers for potential research directions in this area.