Page 112 - MSAM-2-3

Materials Science in

Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
3D-printed triaxial nozzles fabricated by

stereolithography to prevent backflow in soft
matter biofabrication

Hamed I. Albalawi 1,2,3,4 , Dana M. Alhattab 1,2,3 , Aris P. Konstantinidis 1,2,3,4 ,
Khadija B. Shirazi 1,2,3,4 , Yousef Altayeb , and Charlotte A. E. Hauser 1,2,3,4 *
1
1 Laboratory for Nanomedicine, Bioengineering Program, Division of Biological and Environmental
Science and Engineering (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST),
23955-6900, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
2 Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and
Technology (KAUST), 23955-6900, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
3 KAUST Smart Health Initiative (KSHI), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
(KAUST), 23955-6900, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
4 Red Sea Research Center (RSRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST),
23955-6900, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Abstract
Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting has a significant influence on tissue engineering
by virtue of its capacity to produce complicated structures with complex geometries
that are challenging to recreate using conventional manufacturing methods.
*Corresponding author: However, the nozzle design and fabrication remain a limitation within extrusion-
Charlotte A. E. Hauser based 3D bioprinting, restricting and compromising the overall potential of this
(charlotte.hauser@kaust.edu.sa)
technology. The proposed nozzle design combines three Luer-Lok compatible inlets
Citation: Albalawi HI, Alhattab DM, and an outlet within the printed body, eliminating manual assembly and enhancing
Konstantinidis AP, et al., 2023, fabrication consistency and quality. Furthermore, a finite element analysis of the
3D-printed triaxial nozzles
fabricated by stereolithography fluid flow in the nozzle demonstrated the effectiveness of the nozzle to minimize
to prevent backflow in soft matter backflow, in comparison with a traditional nozzle design. The tetrameric IIZK
biofabrication. Mater Sci Add (Ac-Ile-IIe-Cha-Lys-NH ) and IIFK (Ac-Ile-IIe-Phe-Lys-NH ) peptide bioinks were used
Manuf, 2(3): 1786. 2 2
https://doi.org/10.36922/msam.1786 to 3D-print a variety of 3D scaffolds of varying complexity, with good resolution and
gel continuity. Our work successfully demonstrated the fabrication of a novel design
Received: September 10, 2023
and its potential, and by means of 3D bioprinting, we assessed the biocompatibility
Accepted: September 24, 2023 and cell viability of the cell-laden constructs. This study highlights the capability of
Published Online: September 29, the novel design, which aids the field of tissue engineering, allowing 3D extrusion-
2023 based bioprinting to be utilized in the production of cell-incorporated constructions
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). or scaffolds.
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Keywords: 3D Bioprinting; 3D-Printed nozzles; Extrusion-based 3D printing; Backflow
License, permitting distribution, prevention; Disposable nozzles; Stereolithography
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 Additive manufacturing (AM), also widely known as three-dimensional (3D) printing,
affiliations. allows for the creation of 3D objects in a layer-by-layer fashion from digital computer-

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/msam.1786