Impact of storage at different thermal conditions on surface characteristics of 3D printed polycaprolactone and poly(ε-caprolactone-co-p-dioxanone) scaffolds
2023 (English)In: Bioprinting, ISSN 2405-8866, Vol. 33, article id e00293Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is a commonly used method for producing three-dimensional scaffolds using synthetic, degradable polymers. However, there are several variables that must be considered when fabricating devices for clinical use, one of which is storage conditions after printing. While the academic community has examined the impact of FFF on mechanical and thermal properties, there has been less focus on how storage conditions would affect the surface texture of scaffolds. Our hypothesis was that the surface, thermal and physical properties of FFF scaffolds are significantly influenced by the storage conditions. We evaluated the surfaces of FFF poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly (ε-caprolactone-co-p-dioxanone) (PCLDX) strands that were stored at 4 °C, 20 °C, and 37 °C for 28 days. We monitored surface texture, physical and thermal changes to understand the effect of storage on the strands. The implementation of scale-sensitive fractal analysis and feature parameters revealed that storage conditions at 37 °C increased the number of hills and dales, as well as the density of peaks and pits compared to 20 °C and 4 °C, for both materials. The feature roughness parameters for PCL had up to 90% higher values than those of PCLDX, which correlated with the physical and thermal properties of the materials. These differences may impact further surface-cell interaction, highlighting the need for further evaluation for faster clinical translation. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering storage conditions in the design and manufacture of FFF scaffolds and suggest that the use of feature roughness parameters could facilitate the optimization and tailoring the surface properties for specific applications. © 2023 The Authors
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier B.V. , 2023. Vol. 33, article id e00293
Keywords [en]
3D-printing, Degradable polymer, Fused filament fabrication, Storage, Surface roughness, poly(epsilon caprolactone co p dioxanone), polycaprolactone, polydioxanone, polymer, unclassified drug, Article, calibration, confocal laser scanning microscopy, contact angle, differential scanning calorimetry, flow rate, fused deposition modeling, human, scanning electron microscopy, size exclusion chromatography, surface property, thermal analysis, thermography, thermostability, three dimensional bioprinting, workflow
National Category
Polymer Technologies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-65739DOI: 10.1016/j.bprint.2023.e00293Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85163178018OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-65739DiVA, id: diva2:1786244
Note
The authors acknowledge financial support from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research ( RMA15-0010 ). This work is conducted within the Additive Manufacturing for the Life Sciences Competence Center (AM4Life). The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Sweden's Innovation Agency VINNOVA (Grant no: 2019–00029 ).
2023-08-082023-08-082023-08-08Bibliographically approved