Fabrication of pillared PLGA microvessel scaffold using femtosecond laser ablation

Hsiao-Wei Wang¹, Chung-Wei Cheng², Ching-Wen Li³, Han-Wei Chang⁴, Ping-Han Wu², Gou-Jen Wang
 
¹Graduate Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, ²Laser Application Technology Center, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Tainan County, Taiwan, ³Department of Mechanical Engineering, ⁴Department of Chemical Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, People’s Republic of China

Abstract: One of the persistent challenges confronting tissue engineering is the lack of intrinsic microvessels for the transportation of nutrients and metabolites. An artificial microvascular system could be a feasible solution to this problem. In this study, the femtosecond laser ablation technique was implemented for the fabrication of pillared microvessel scaffolds of polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA). This novel scaffold facilitates implementation of the conventional cell seeding process. The progress of cell growth can be observed in vitro by optical microscopy. The problems of becoming milky or completely opaque with the conventional PLGA scaffold after cell seeding can be resolved. In this study, PLGA microvessel scaffolds consisting of 47 µm × 80 µm pillared branches were produced. Results of cell culturing of bovine endothelial cells demonstrate that the cells adhere well and grow to surround each branch of the proposed pillared microvessel networks.

Keywords: femtosecond laser ablation, pillared microvessel scaffold, polylactic-co-glycolic acid, bovine endothelial cells

A Letter to the Editor has been published for this article.