FABRICATION OF 3D PRINTED STRUCTURES EMBEDDING PIEZOELECTRIC FIBERS FOR SKELETAL MUSCLE TISSUE ENGINEERING

Injuries such as volumetric muscle loss (VML) prevent the regeneration and self-healing of the muscle tissue. Conventional treatments for VML include autologous muscle transplantation. However, this may cause morbidity on the donor site and not a full recovery of the muscle function. For this reason, skeletal muscle tissue engineering (SMTE) has become a popular alternative over the years to cultivate cells inside a biomaterial and build a scaffold with the proper cues to promote proliferation and differentiation of the cells. Some of these cues include mechanical and electrical stimulation, which can be obtained through piezoelectric materials. In addition, it is important to achieve cell alignment for the differentiation into muscle tissue. To do so, fibers can be embedded and aligned inside the construct to influence their orientation. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is the fabrication of 3D printed structures embedding aligned piezoelectric fibers inside a bioink for SMTE. For this purpose, an optimization of the piezoelectric fibers synthesis was performed, in addition to a heat treatment to enhance their stability in growth medium. Regarding the bioink, its characterization and a study of the best printing parameters was done in order to obtain an optimal 3D printed structure. In the end, the piezoelectric fibers were implemented in the bioink and a study and optimization of their alignment upon printing was performed.