3D printing/imprinting molding process of soft tissue scaffolds

Focusing on the low efficiency, lager cell damage and low forming accuracy of circular channel in soft tissue scaffolds construction by 3D printing technology, a novel method is presented to fabricate scaffolds by combining imprinting with 3D printing techniques. The imprinting technique is combined with light crosslinking method to make single-layer soft tissue scaffold with flow channel structure. Then, gelatin, a kind of temperature-sensitive material, is injected along the flow channel by printing technique to cure in the low temperature environment to support the upper layers. A stereoscopic structure is formed via the layer-by-layer accumulation. The gelatin is finally melted in the flow channel by temperature control to form pipelines. An automatic fabrication device is developed to realize the strategy. The results demonstrate that the light uniformity reaches the maximum when the scanning interval reaches 51 mm, and that the arc-type flow channel structure is clearly visible and interlinked. The approach is beneficial to accurate manufacture of soft tissue scaffolds, and it can be expected to improve cell survival rate and forming efficiency in cell printing.