Special Issue Editor

Dr. Stefan Lohfeld

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Guest Editor

Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, USA
Interests: additive manufacturing; tissue engineering scaffolds; orthodontic appliances; medical devices

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are widely used in tissue engineering approaches and implantology to create scaffolds, templates, and patient-specific implants from biodegradable and non-degradable biomaterials. Specific applications, such as the inclusion of bioactive factors or when addressing tissue interfaces, often require the adaption of either the AM technology to the material, or the biomaterial to the AM technology. As an example, implants that contain cells or biomolecules for better biomimicry may not be processed with certain heat- or solvent-based AM approaches.

The aim of this Special Issue is to capture and highlight the progress being made by researchers across the globe on advancing AM technologies and AM-processed biomaterials, with the ultimate goal being to provide biomimetic materials for novel therapies for hard- and soft-tissue engineering and/or implants for craniofacial applications.

We are inviting you to contribute to this Special Issue on the adaption of AM tools to address processing issues with current technologies when working with specialized biomaterials, and on the advancement of AM-processed biomaterials, implants, and aides for craniofacial applications.

Dr. Stefan Lohfeld
Guest Editor

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Keywords

tissue engineering
craniofacial tissues
additive manufacturing
biomimetic materials
biomolecules
growth factors
encapsulation
extrusion process
bone
cartilage
temporomandibular joint
cleft lip/palate

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

16 pages, 10571 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The 3D-McMap Guidelines: Three-Dimensional Multicomposite Microsphere Adaptive Printing

by Roland M. Klar, James Cox, Naren Raja and Stefan Lohfeld

Biomimetics 2024, 9(2), 94; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biomimetics9020094 - 06 Feb 2024

Viewed by 1145

Abstract

Microspheres, synthesized from diverse natural or synthetic polymers, are readily utilized in biomedical tissue engineering to improve the healing of various tissues. Their ability to encapsulate growth factors, therapeutics, and natural biomolecules, which can aid tissue regeneration, makes microspheres invaluable for future clinical therapies. While microsphere-supplemented scaffolds have been investigated, a pure microsphere scaffold with an optimized architecture has been challenging to create via 3D printing methods due to issues that prevent consistent deposition of microsphere-based materials and their ability to maintain the shape of the 3D-printed structure. Utilizing the extrusion printing process, we established a methodology that not only allows the creation of large microsphere scaffolds but also multicomposite matrices into which cells, growth factors, and therapeutics encapsulated in microspheres can be directly deposited during the printing process. Our 3D-McMap method provides some critical guidelines for issues with scaffold shape fidelity during and after printing. Carefully timed breaks, minuscule drying steps, and adjustments to extrusion parameters generated an evenly layered large microsphere scaffold that retained its internal architecture. Such scaffolds are superior to other microsphere-containing scaffolds, as they can release biomolecules in a highly controlled spatiotemporal manner. This capability permits us to study cell responses to the delivered signals to develop scaffolds that precisely modulate new tissue formation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Additive Manufacturing of Biomaterials for Craniofacial Tissue Engineering and Implantology)

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