Additive manufacturing of nanocellulose based scaffolds for tissue engineering: Beyond a reinforcement filler

Abstract

Cellulose nanomaterials (CNMs) have attracted great attention in the last decades due to the abundance of the biopolymer, the biorenewable character and the outstanding mechanical properties they account for. These, together with their biocompatibility makes them ideal candidates for tissue engineering (TE) applications. Additive manufacturing is an ideal biofabrication approach for TE, providing rapid and reliable technologies to produce scaffolds aimed for the guidance of host or implanted cells to form functional tissues. However, the control of parameters at the nanoscale that regulate cellular functions such as proliferation and differentiation remain challenging. This review article presents the latest advances in the use of CNMs as platforms to guide cellular functions in additive manufactured scaffolds. Special attention is given to functionalization routes, methods to exploit them as topographical cues and to improve the local mechanical properties together with the resulting cell-CNM interactions.

Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Cellulose nanomaterial; Nanocomposite; Printing; Scaffold; Tissue engineering.