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Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Technological University Dublin
Collagen; freeze-drying; heart valves; scaffolds; tissue engineering
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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Freeze-Drying As A Novel Biofabrication Method For Achieving A Controlled Microarchitecture Within Large, Complex Natural Biomaterial Scaffolds, Claire Brougham, Tanya J. Levingstone, Nian Shen, Gerard M. Cooney, Thomas C. Flanagan, Stefan Jockenhoevel, Fergal J. O’Brien
Freeze-Drying As A Novel Biofabrication Method For Achieving A Controlled Microarchitecture Within Large, Complex Natural Biomaterial Scaffolds, Claire Brougham, Tanya J. Levingstone, Nian Shen, Gerard M. Cooney, Thomas C. Flanagan, Stefan Jockenhoevel, Fergal J. O’Brien
Articles
The biofabrication of large scaffolds from natural biomaterials into complex 3D shapes with controllable microarchitecture remains a major challenge. Freeze-drying (or lyophilization) is a technique used to create bioactive scaffolds with a porous architecture and is typically only used to generate scaffolds in planar 3D geometries. Here we report the development of a new biofabrication process to form a collagen-based scaffold into a large, complex geometry which has a large height to width ratio, and a controlled porous microarchitecture. This biofabrication process was validated through the successful development of a heart valve shaped scaffold, fabricated from a collagen-glycosaminoglycan co-polymer. Notably, …