Page 508 - IJB-10-2

International

Journal of Bioprinting

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Oozing: An accessible technique to create

3D-printed scaffolds suitable for
tissue engineering

Juan Crespo-Santiago 1,2* , Luis M. Delgado , Rafa Madariaga , Laia Millan ,
3
1
4
Oriol Chico , Pau Oliver , Román Pérez , and Marta Otero-Viñas 2,5*
1
1
3
1 Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, University of Vic-Central University of
Catalonia (UVIC-UCC), La Rambla 30, 08002, Barcelona, Spain
2 Tissue Repair and Regeneration Laboratory (TR2Lab), Institute for Research and Innovation in Life
and Health Sciences in Central Catalonia (IrisCC), Ctra. de Roda, 70 08500, Vic, Barcelona, Spain
3
Bioengineering Institute of Technology, International University of Catalonia (UIC), Immaculada 22,
08017, Barcelona, Spain
4 Data Analysis and Modeling Research Group (DAM), Department of Economics and Business,
University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (UVIC-UCC), Sagrada Família 7, 08500, Vic, Spain
5 Faculty of Science, Technology, and Engineering. University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia
(UVIC-UCC), C. de la Laura, 13, 08500, Vic, Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

Tissue-engineered constructs require mimicking the extracellular matrix
microenvironment of native tissue for better promoting cell growth. Commercial
three-dimensional (3D) printers provide a versatile platform to fabricate tissue models,
*Corresponding authors: but they possess certain constraints regarding the reproduction of natural tissue
Juan Crespo-Santiago structures due to the limited functionality of current slicing strategies and hardware. In
(jcrespo@elisava.net) this study, we present a new approach to 3D-printing polylactic acid (PLA) constructs
Marta Otero-Viñas
(marta.otero@uvic.cat) with fibers in the range of microns by combining the oozing effect and algorithm-aided
design (AAD) with a conventional fused deposition modeling printer. Three different
Citation: Crespo-Santiago J, oozing geometries were compared with two controls to explore their mechanical
Delgado LM, Madariaga R, et al.
Oozing: an accessible technique to behavior and their cellular culture growth potential. Microscopic analysis revealed that
create 3D-printed scaffolds suitable oozing groups possessed higher porosity and statistically significantly thinner fibers
for tissue engineering. Int J Bioprint. than controls. Sodium hydroxide treatment reversibly increased the hydrophilicity of
2024;10(2):2337.
doi: 10.36922/ijb.2337 PLA without affecting the scaffolds’ mechanical properties in the compression tests.
In addition, cell culture assays showed that oozing specimens exhibited a greater
Received: November 29, 2023
Accepted: January 22, 2024 capacity of promoting SaOs-2 osteoblastic cell proliferation after 7 days in comparison
Published Online: March 12, 2024 with controls. We demonstrated that randomly distributed microfibered environments
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). can be fabricated with an ordinary 3D printer utilizing the oozing effect and advanced
This is an Open Access article AAD, resulting in improved biomimetic 3D constructs for tissue-engineering strategies.
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution, Keywords: Oozing; 3D printing; Tissue engineering; Cell cultures; Polylactic acid
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with 1. Introduction
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional The demand for new tissues in regenerative medicine therapies has led to an increase
affiliations. in new tissue-engineering strategies to fabricate synthetic constructs for damaged

Volume 10 Issue 2 (2024) 500 doi: 10.36922/ijb.2337