Projection microfabrication of three-dimensional scaffolds for tissue engineering

This article presents a micromanufacturing method for direct projection printing of three-dimensional scaffolds for applications in the field of tissue engineering by using a digital micromirror-array device (DMD) in a layer-by-layer process. Multilayered scaffolds are microfabricated using curable materials through an ultraviolet (UV) photopolymerization process. The prepatterned UV light is projected onto the photocurable polymer solution by creating the "photomask" design with a graphic software. Poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate is mixed with a small amount of dye (0.3 wt %) to enhance the fabrication resolution of the scaffold. The DMD fabrication system is equipped with a purging mechanism to prevent the accumulation of oligomer which could interfere with the feature resolution of previously polymerized layers. The surfaces of the predesigned multilayered scaffold are covalently conjugated with fibronectin for efficient cellular attachment. Our results show that murine marrow-derived progenitor cells successfully attached to fibronectin-modified scaffolds.