Interfacial Diffusion Printing: An Efficient Manufacturing Technique for Artificial Tubular Grafts

Despite great progresses in bioprinting materials and technologies, immense challenges still remain when printing tubular tissues or organs with satisfying mechanical and chemical properties, such as blood vessel, colon, and trachea. Herein, a promising extrusion system based on an interfacial diffusion printing (IDP) technique for one-step printing of tubular tissue grafts is proposed. Specifically, this technique offers great convenience to prepare hollow hydrogel fibers with excellent mechanical properties and satisfactory biocompatibility. The tubular diameter can be readily adjusted within 6 mm, which renders the possibility of these hydrogel tubes to serve as small-diameter vascular grafts. In the model of animal trials, the hydrogel grafts with the capability of enduring arterial pressure are mechanically stable in rabbit carotid artery replacement. Because of its intrinsic simplicity and generality, the IDP technique is considered to be one of the reliable choices for more complicated bioengineering.