A POROUS PERFUSION BIOREACTOR THAT POSSESS MICROCHANNELS: IT’S FABRICATION BY SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING AND PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF CULTURE HUMAN HEPATOMA Hep G2 CELLS

For engineering implantable liver tissues, we designed a new scaffold with a three-dimensional (3D) branching and joining flow channel network (inner diameter is 1 mm) described by accumulated unit tetrahedrons (edge length is 4 mm). For its fabrication, biodegradable polycaprolactone (PCL) and 80% (w/w) of NaCl salt particles as a porogen were completely mixed and applied to the selective laser sintering (SLS) process, a rapid prototyping technique. We successfully obtained a scaffold that had a high porosity of 89% with a pore size of 100-200 μm and a 3D network flow channels whose inner diameter is 800 μm. Results of X ray CT confirmed the sintered scaffolds had completely interconnected flow channels as designed. A preliminary perfusion culture over 9 days demonstrated that such mirochannels was necessary to guide the cells to grow and function.