<p>Tissue engineering scaffolds should mimic the 3D micro-architecture and macro-geometry of their native tissue analog. This study's objective was to characterize the process-structure-function interrelationships of 3D-Melt Blowing (3DMB), a scalable process for manufacturing biomimetic scaffolds that synergistically unites nonwoven textiles and additive manufacturing for tissue engineering applications. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to predict air jet velocity and surface skin friction coefficient of 3DMB fiber deposition. Polycaprolactone was utilized to fabricate scaffolds with critical process parameters – fiber deposition offset (FDO = 50, 90% of collector diameter) and surface velocity of the collector (SVC = 160, 700 m/min. FDO and SVC were found to significantly affect fiber morphology. Scaffolds were seeded with human adipose-derived stem cells (hASC), and cellular responses were assessed over 7 days in culture. Similar hASC viability was observed after 7 days, but trends in cellular metabolic activity contrasted between morphologies. Compressive mechanical properties were assessed for acellular scaffolds. Morphology was observed to have a significant effect on scaffold compressive strength, but cyclic loading did not. This study demonstrated that 3DMB parameters FDO and SVC modulated scaffold fibrous critical quality attributes, cellular responses, and mechanical properties.&nbsp;</p>

Computational and Experimental Characterization of 3d-Melt Blowing Process-Structure-Function Interrelationships for Tissue Engineering

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/MSEC/MSEC2021/volume/85062

2021 International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC2021)

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.