Digital Design and Automated Fabrication of Bespoke Collagen Microfiber Scaffolds.

ABSTRACT: A great variety of natural and synthetic polymer materials have been utilized in soft tissue engineering as extracellular matrix (ECM) materials. Natural polymers, such as collagen and fibrin hydrogels, have experienced especially broad adoption due to the high density of cell adhesion sites compared to their synthetic counterparts, ready availability, and ease of use. However, these and other hydrogels lack the structural and mechanical anisotropy that define the ECM in many tissues, such as skeletal and cardiac muscle, tendon, and cartilage. Herein, we present a facile, low-cost, and automated method of preparing collagen microfibers, organizing these fibers into precisely controlled mesh designs, and embedding these meshes in a bulk hydrogel, creating a composite biomaterial suitable fo

SUBMITTER: Kaiser NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6859695 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature