Rapid prototyping of gelatin/sodium alginate tissue engineering scaffolds

Gelatin/sodium alginate scaffold blended with cells can be manufactured to culture the cells in a 3D gel scaffold.The controlled conditions for forming the scaffold include controlled temperatures,physical and chemical changes of the gelatin/sodium alginate within the physiological environment.A gelatin/sodium alginate scaffold forming technique was developed based on Ca~(2+) cross linkages.The gelatin/sodium alginate can be printed layer by layer at 015℃.Once each layer was finished,a CaCl_2 solution was sprayed over the layer to promote solidification.The completed scaffold was submerged in CaCl_2 solution to complete the cross linkages.Defect such as overflow,overlapped joints and holes should be avoided.Excellent gelatin/sodium alginate scaffolds were obtained by optimizing the process parameters.