Automatic biofabrication of grafts combining 3D electrospinning and hydrogel fusion for tissue engineering

• Autor(a) principal: Simões, Vitor Gabriel Costa
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/40719
• topic: Cartilage; Tissue engineering; Biofabrication; 3D electrospinning; Hydrogel; Scaffoldsv

The development of new processes and biomaterials has allowed cartilage tissue engineering to produce more and more structures capable of reproducing the physiological and biological properties of native articular cartilage. However, to date none of the solutions developed have found clinical applicability, with most still remaining in the laboratory domain. This work is therefore a further contribution towards exploring the processes and biomaterials associated with cartilage tissue engineering. The aim of this study was to understand how the processes of 3D electrospinning and fusion of different hydrogels and compositions combined with parallel electrospinning of polycaprolactone (PCL)/gelatine (Gel) fibers alter the properties of the grafts obtained for potential application in cartilage tissue engineering. This paper provides a brief description of articular cartilage in terms of its constitution and biomechanical behavior. The topic of tissue engineering is also developed, with a special focus on the processes and materials applied to cartilage tissue engineering. In the laboratory, a series of exploratory electrospinning tests were carried out on different hydrogels and their respective compositions in an attempt to assess the feasibility of their production. Polyvinyl acid (PVA), polyethylene oxide (PEO) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) hydrogels were selected in different combinations and compositions for the 3D electrospinning process and agarose for the fusion process. Five combinations of grafts with identical architecture were then manufactured automatically using 3D electrospinning and fusion equipment. These grafts were then characterized in terms of the alignment and architecture of the fibres, fibre diameter, pore size, weight, thickness and modulus of elasticity to compression of the graft with and without swelling. The results were compared and an ANOVA statistical analysis was carried out. The results show that the different hydrogels and their respective compositions lead to different properties, although most of the differences obtained are not significant. The significance occurs essentially in the different parameters analyzed between the states before and after swelling. In terms of mechanical properties, it can be seen that after swelling the grafts decrease significantly, with only one significant difference being found between PCL/Gel/PVP and PCL/Gel/agarose grafts. The results obtained show that the mechanical properties obtained are lower than those of native cartilage, showing that further work is needed in order to optimize these processes and materials.