Chapter 8
Computer-Aided Wet-Spinning
Dario Puppi and Federica Chiellini
Abstract
Computer-aided wet-spinning (CAWS) has emerged in the past few years as a hybrid fabrication technique
coupling the advantages of additive manufacturing in controlling the external shape and macroporous
structure of biomedical polymeric scaffold with those of wet-spinning in endowing the polymeric matrix
with a spread microporosity. This book chapter is aimed at providing a detailed description of the experimental methods developed to fabricate by CAWS polymeric scaffolds with a predefined external shape and
size as well as a controlled internal porous structure. The protocol for the preparation of poly(ε-caprolactone)-based scaffolds with a predefined pore size and geometry will be reported in detail as a
reference example that can be followed and simply adapted to fabricate other kinds of scaffold, with a
different porous structure or based on different biodegradable polymers, by applying the processing
parameters reported in relevant tables included in the text.
Key words Tissue engineering, Scaffold fabrication, Computer-aided wet-spinning, Polymer processing, Biodegradable polymers, Poly(ε-caprolactone)
1 Introduction
The combination of additive manufacturing (AM) with other polymer processing approaches is a current hot research topic aimed at
the development of biomedical scaffolds with enhanced complexity
in terms of integration of structural elements tailored at different
length scales. This strategy can be pursued at (1) an assembly level
to obtain bi-/multiphasic scaffolds with compartmented architectures, (2) a fabrication level to obtain bimodal scaffolds with fully
integrated multi-scale architectures, and (3) a technique level to
integrate the working principles of the two processes in a novel
hybrid technique for manufacturing scaffolds with a single multifunctional architecture [1]. Successful examples of hybrid technologies development are represented by the integration of AM with
solution-electrospinning, melt-electrospinning, freeze-drying, or
wet-spinning. In particular, computer-aided wet-spinning
(CAWS) has emerged in the past few years as a hybrid AM
Alberto Rainer and Lorenzo Moroni (eds.), Computer-Aided Tissue Engineering: Methods and Protocols,
Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 2147, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0611-7_8,
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021
101
Computer-Aided Wet-Spinning
Dario Puppi and Federica Chiellini
Abstract
Computer-aided wet-spinning (CAWS) has emerged in the past few years as a hybrid fabrication technique
coupling the advantages of additive manufacturing in controlling the external shape and macroporous
structure of biomedical polymeric scaffold with those of wet-spinning in endowing the polymeric matrix
with a spread microporosity. This book chapter is aimed at providing a detailed description of the experimental methods developed to fabricate by CAWS polymeric scaffolds with a predefined external shape and
size as well as a controlled internal porous structure. The protocol for the preparation of poly(ε-caprolactone)-based scaffolds with a predefined pore size and geometry will be reported in detail as a
reference example that can be followed and simply adapted to fabricate other kinds of scaffold, with a
different porous structure or based on different biodegradable polymers, by applying the processing
parameters reported in relevant tables included in the text.
Key words Tissue engineering, Scaffold fabrication, Computer-aided wet-spinning, Polymer processing, Biodegradable polymers, Poly(ε-caprolactone)
1 Introduction
The combination of additive manufacturing (AM) with other polymer processing approaches is a current hot research topic aimed at
the development of biomedical scaffolds with enhanced complexity
in terms of integration of structural elements tailored at different
length scales. This strategy can be pursued at (1) an assembly level
to obtain bi-/multiphasic scaffolds with compartmented architectures, (2) a fabrication level to obtain bimodal scaffolds with fully
integrated multi-scale architectures, and (3) a technique level to
integrate the working principles of the two processes in a novel
hybrid technique for manufacturing scaffolds with a single multifunctional architecture [1]. Successful examples of hybrid technologies development are represented by the integration of AM with
solution-electrospinning, melt-electrospinning, freeze-drying, or
wet-spinning. In particular, computer-aided wet-spinning
(CAWS) has emerged in the past few years as a hybrid AM
Alberto Rainer and Lorenzo Moroni (eds.), Computer-Aided Tissue Engineering: Methods and Protocols,
Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 2147, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0611-7_8,
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021
101