Computational fluid dynamics analysis of the fluid environment of 3D printed tissue scaffolds within a perfusion bioreactor: the effect of pore shape

Abstract

Mass transport properties within 3D scaffold are essential for tissue regeneration; for example, various fluid environmental cues influence mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiation. 3D printing has been emerging as a new technology for scaffold fabrication by controlling the scaffold pore geometry to influence cell growth environment. Direct ink writing, one of the popular 3D printing methods, has the advantages of controlling the structure design and material selections. In this study, woodpile lattice tissue scaffold was fabricated using DIW method. The flow field within lattice scaffolds in a perfusion system was investigated with angles from 90° to 15° using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The results indicate that the maximum fluid velocity magnitude and fluid shear stress within the unit pore geometries of lattice structures increased as the angle decreased from 90° to 15°. The application of CFD techniques allowed a detailed prediction of velocity and fluid shear stress mapping within 3D printed scaffolds which is crucial to determine the optimal environment for cell and nutrient transport.