Soft Elastic Fibrous Scaffolds for Muscle Tissue Engineering by Touch Spinning.

This paper reports an approach for the fabrication of highly aligned soft elastic fibrous scaffolds using touch spinning of thermoplastic polycaprolactone-polyurethane elastomers and demonstrates their potential for the engineering of muscle tissue. A family of polyester-polyurethane soft copolymers based on polycaprolactone with different molecular weights and three different chain extenders such as 1,4-butanediol and polyethylene glycols with different molecular weight was synthesized. By varying the molar ratio and molecular weights between the segments of the copolymer, different physicochemical and mechanical properties were obtained.

4D Biofabrication Using a Combination of 3D Printing and Melt-Electrowriting of Shape-Morphing Polymers.

We report the fabrication of scroll-like scaffolds with anisotropic topography using 4D printing based on a combination of 3D extrusion printing of methacrylated alginate, melt-electrowriting of polycaprolactone fibers, and shape-morphing of the fabricated object. A combination of 3D extrusion printing and melt-electrowriting allows programmed deposition of different materials and fabrication of structures with high resolution. Shape-morphing allows the transformation of a patterned surface of a printed structure in a pattern on inner surface of a folded object that is used to align cells.