Since we started to design degradable and porous scaffolds the interest and development in additive manufacturing has increased tremendously. In tissue regeneration, the technique has been considered useful for obtaining precise structures and being able to personalize porous scaffolds. The problem with printing degradable scaffolds that have mechanical stability is that the degradable polymers decompose during the process. Both polymer and process must thereby be adapted to meet the requirements, where our main requirement is that the material properties should not change during the process. We have an additional requirement and that is that the degradable scaffold should be adapted to soft tissue and thus be pliable and soft. However, not as soft as a gel, we want the scaffold to be able to take load and thus both create a 3D environment for the cells to proliferate, differentiate on to and protect them against compression.<br/>We have focused on polymers and processes that make it possible to test a prototype in clinical studies within a reasonable period of time. Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) is a good polymer to use in melt-extrusion additive manufacturing because it has low melting point and the gap between the melting temperature and the temperature at which PCL is thermally decomposed is large. Unfortunately, the polymer breaks down very slowly in the body. Our solution was to incorporate p-dioxanone into the polymer chain, thus increasing the rate of degradation, while maintaining printability. By simulating different scaffold designs we also managed to find a 3D design that generated soft scaffolds. The combination of the polymer and the 3D design proved to be a good environment for adipose tissue regeneration. We managed to get all the parameters together and obtained a successful process for printing soft polyester based degradable scaffolds through close cooperation between polymer technology, mechanics and biology.

Additive manufacturing, degradable aliphatic polyesters and soft tissue engineering: Is that a possible combination?

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

[Author Benefits](https://scimeetings.acs.org/?utm_source=pubs_content_marketing&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=0320_MCF_NPI_Launch_Spring_Homepage&ref=pubs_content_marketing)

[How to use SciMeetings](https://storage.googleapis.com/dl.morressier.com/acs/SciMeetings-ACSSpring2020-HowToGuide_M3020-Final.pdf)

[Frequently Asked Questions](https://storage.googleapis.com/dl.morressier.com/acs/SciMtng_ACSNMSp2020_FAQ_M3120_Final.pdf)

ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.