abstract
- © 2019 Elsevier B.V.Clinically used tissue-engineered devices are few and far between. The search for biocompatible materials has been a great focus for the field for the past 30 years. The ones that exist are hard to work with when manufacturing patient-specific shapes with complex external and internal pore geometries because of their material and mechanical properties. Photo-cross-linkable polymers have arisen as a potential 3D printable solution for this problem. Here we present a new sugar-based polymer, isosorbide-derived polyester as a potential candidate to help fill this gap. Isosorbide-derived polyesters containing different amount of double bonds were synthesized to allow the material to be crosslinked or functionalized. Three resin formulations with different amounts of double bonds available (5, 12 and 17%) were used. After initial thermal and photo-crosslinking studies, Isosorbide-derived unsaturated polyesters were then mixed with a photoinitiator, co-crosslinker, and solvent to form a 3D printable resin formulation. Thin films of that resin were then cured using a Digital Light Projection (DLP) printer and analyzed. An attempt was made to modulate the cured thickness by adding HMB as a photoattenuator. We assessed 3D printing success and tensile green strength for the 3 resin formulations. We were able to 3D print unsaturated polyesters from isosorbide with a DLP printer when enough double bonds were present to facilitate crosslinking and curing of the material. Finally, thin films were then seeded with fibroblasts following the ISO 10993-5 protocol. These coupons were found safe (i.e., non-cytotoxic and biocompatible), potentially marking the beginning of a new approach to preparing resorbable implants for tissue engineering uses.