Poly(hydroxyalkanoates) are biodegradable and biocompatible polymers suitable for tissue engineering. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) belongs to modern rapid prototyping techniques for the fabrication of scaffolds. In this work, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBH) were tested for FDM. Thermal and rheological properties of industrial PHAs were compared with poly(lactic acid) (PLA), which is a biodegradable polymer commonly used for FDM. The massive decrease in viscosity and loss of molecular weight of PHB and PHBV precluded their use for FDM. On the other hand, the thermal stability of PHBH was comparable to that of PLA. PHBH scaffolds prepared by FDM exhibited excellent mechanical properties, no cytotoxicity and large proliferation of mouse embryonic fibroblast cells within 96 h. The hydrolytic degradation of PHBH and PLA scaffolds tested in synthetic gastric juice for 52 days confirmed a faster degradation of PHBH than PLA. The decrease in molecular weight confirmed the first-order kinetics with a slightly higher (0.0169 day-1) degradation rate constant for PHBH as compared to the value (0.0107 day-1) obtained for PLA. These results indicate that PHBH could be used to produce scaffolds by FDM with application in tissue engineering.

Centre of Polymer Systems Faculty of Technology Tomas Bata University in Zlin Trida Tomase Bati 5678 760 01 Zlin Czech Republic

Department of Agrobiotechnology IFA Tulln Institute of Natural Materials Technology University for Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna Konrad Lorenz Strasse 20 3430 Tulln an der Donau Austria

Department of Food Chemistry and Biotechnology Faculty of Chemistry Brno University of Technology Purkynova 118 612 00 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Physical and Applied Chemistry Faculty of Chemistry Brno University of Technology Purkynova 118 612 00 Brno Czech Republic

POLYMAT and Polymer Science and Technology Department Faculty of Chemistry University of the Basque Country UPV EHU Paseo Manuel Lardizabal 3 20018 Donostia San Sebastian Spain

POLYMAT and Polymer Science and Technology Department Faculty of Chemistry University of the Basque Country UPV EHU Paseo Manuel Lardizabal 3 20018 Donostia San Sebastian Spain; IKERBASQUE Basque Foundation for Science Bilbao Spain

Polymer Institute Slovak Academy of Sciences Dubravska Cesta 9 845 41 Bratislava 45 Slovak Republic

References provided by Crossref.org

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) and Polycaprolactone (PCL) Based Blends for Tissue Engineering and Bone Medical Applications Processed by FDM 3D Printing

Influence of FFF Process Conditions on the Thermal, Mechanical, and Rheological Properties of Poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxy Hexanoate)

Evaluation of the Properties of PHB Composite Filled with Kaolin Particles for 3D Printing Applications Using the Design of Experiment

FDM 3D Printed Composites for Bone Tissue Engineering Based on Plasticized Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)/poly(d,l-lactide) Blends

Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate-co-3-Hydroxyvalerate) Scaffolds