Microprocessing of thin collagen films by ultra-short laser ablation

This preliminary work explores a technique for processing collagen thin films by femtosecond Ti: Sapphire laser ablation in order to provide a structured matrix support for cell growth and other tissue engineering applications. The laser-induced structuring of collagen easily yields an expanded micro foam material with interconnected pores and properties that mimics the native collagen-based extracellular matrix. The obtained structured matrix is formed by a cavitation and bubble growth mechanism. The surface properties of collagen thin films before and after Ti-sapphire irradiation with 800 nm were investigated by means of Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) technique. FESEM analysis showed that with a single pulse of ultra-short laser radiation is capable of inducing morphological changes in the irradiated collagen films. The size of the observed features can be controlled by selection of laser fluence and pulse number. Collagen-based biomaterials were developed and explored for the purposes of tissue engineering. Biomaterials are expected to function as cell scaffolds to replace native collagen. The ultra-short laser ablation induced nanofoaming of biomaterials will improve currently available techniques. Artificial collagen nanofibers are increasingly significant in numerous tissue engineering applications and seem to be ideal scaffolds for cell growth and proliferation.