Degradation Analysis of Printed Vascular Grafts Under Refrigerated Storage Conditions
摘要
3D-printed structures made of biopolymers are often used as supports for cell culture. One of the main disadvantages of biopolymers is that, in the same way they are good substrates for the growth of all types of cells, are also good for microorganisms and fungi. Once a bioink is opened and stored for a period of time, its rheological behavior can significantly change. These changes make the printing process more difficult and imprecise. As a result, once opened, cartridges are often used to their maximum capacity, producing more prints than are needed at the time. Motivated by this observation, we are conducting a study on storage life of 3D printed structures. For this study, we have used vascular-type grafts. Preliminary results of this study show that, even with storage at low temperatures, changes happened rapidly in these samples. So, after six days of testing, vascular grafts present critical changes in its structural stability.