Validating continuous digital light processing (cDLP) additive manufacturing accuracy and tissue engineering utility of a dye-initiator package.

This study tested the accuracy of tissue engineering scaffold rendering via the continuous digital light processing (cDLP) light-based additive manufacturing technology. High accuracy (i.e., <50 µm) allows the designed performance of features relevant to three scale spaces: cell-scaffold, scaffold-tissue, and tissue-organ interactions. The biodegradable polymer poly (propylene fumarate) was used to render highly accurate scaffolds through the use of a dye-initiator package, TiO2 and bis (2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl)phenylphosphine oxide. This dye-initiator package facilitates high accuracy in the Z dimension. Linear, round, and right-angle features were measured to gauge accuracy. Most features showed accuracies between 5.4-15% of the design. However, one feature, an 800 µm diameter circular pore, exhibited a 35.7% average reduction of patency. Light scattered in the x, y directions by the dye may have reduced this feature's accuracy. Our new fine-grained understanding of accuracy could be used to make further improvements by including corrections in the scaffold design software. Successful cell attachment occurred with both canine and human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Highly accurate cDLP scaffold rendering is critical to the design of scaffolds that both guide bone regeneration and that fully resorb. Scaffold resorption must occur for regenerated bone to be remodeled and, thereby, achieve optimal strength.

Continuous Digital Light Processing (cDLP): Highly Accurate Additive Manufacturing of Tissue Engineered Bone Scaffolds.

Highly accurate rendering of the external and internal geometry of bone tissue engineering scaffolds effects fit at the defect site, loading of internal pore spaces with cells, bioreactor-delivered nutrient and growth factor circulation, and scaffold resorption. It may be necessary to render resorbable polymer scaffolds with 50 µm or less accuracy to achieve these goals. This level of accuracy is available using Continuous Digital Light processing (cDLP) which utilizes a DLP(®) (Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX) chip. One such additive manufacturing device is the envisionTEC (Ferndale, MI) Perfactory(®). To use cDLP we integrate a photo-crosslinkable polymer, a photo-initiator, and a biocompatible dye. The dye attenuates light, thereby limiting the depth of polymerization. In this study we fabricated scaffolds using the well-studied resorbable polymer, poly(propylene fumarate) (PPF), titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) as a dye, Irgacure(®) 819 (BASF [Ciba], Florham Park, NJ) as an initiator, and diethyl fumarate as a solvent to control viscosity.