Polycaprolactone usage in additive manufacturing strategies for tissue engineering applications: A review

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Tissue Engineering
• Additive Manufacturing

Background:

• Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a versatile biomaterial for tissue engineering due to its favorable properties like biodegradability, biocompatibility, and processability.
• Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies enable the fabrication of customized PCL scaffolds with reduced processing time and material waste.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the application of AM techniques for producing polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds in diverse tissue engineering applications.
• To explore strategies for optimizing scaffold properties (geometry, porosity, interconnectivity, degradation rate, mechanical properties) to enhance PCL's biocompatibility and bioactivity.

Main Methods:

• Comprehensive literature review focusing on AM techniques for PCL scaffold fabrication.
• Analysis of studies investigating the influence of scaffold design and material properties on tissue regeneration outcomes.
• Discussion of rheological and thermal properties relevant to PCL filament and scaffold production.

Main Results:

• AM enables the creation of tailored PCL scaffolds for bone, muscle, cartilage, skin, and cardiovascular tissue regeneration.
• Optimization of scaffold parameters significantly enhances PCL's performance in regenerative medicine.
• Understanding the rheological and thermal behavior is crucial for efficient PCL scaffold fabrication.

Conclusions:

• Additive manufacturing is a powerful tool for developing advanced polycaprolactone scaffolds for tissue engineering.
• Future research should focus on integrating PCL scaffolds with cell-laden hydrogels and exploring 4D printing for dynamic tissue constructs.