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Publications in Scientific Journals:

J. Torgersen, A. Ovsianikov, V. Mironov, N.U Pucher, X.H. Qin, Z. Li, K. Cicha, T. Machacek, V. Jantsch-Plunger, R. Liska, J. Stampfl:
"Photo-sensitive hydrogels for threedimensional laser microfabrication in the presence of whole organisms";
Journal of Biomedical Optics, 17 (2012), 10; 1 - 10.



English abstract:
Hydrogels are polymeric materials with water contents similar to that of soft tissues. Due to their biomimetic properties, they have been extensively used in various biomedical applications including cell encapsulation for tissue engineering. The utilisation of photopolymers provides a possibility for the temporal and spatial controlling of hydrogel cross-links.
In this work, we produced 3D hydrogel scaffolds by means of the two-photon polymerisation (2PP) technique. Using a highly efficient water-soluble initiator, photopolymers with up to 80wt% water were processed with high precision and reproducibility at a writing speed of 10 mm/s. The biocompatibility of the applied materials was verified using Caenorhabditis elegans as living test organisms. Furthermore, these living organisms were successfully embedded within a 200x200x35 µm3 hydrogel scaffold.
As most biological tissues exhibit a window of transparency at the wavelength of the applied femtosecond laser, it is suggested that 2PP is promising for an in situ approach. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of and potential for bio-fabricating 3D tissue constructs in the micrometre-range via near-infrared lasers in direct contact with a living organism.


"Official" electronic version of the publication (accessed through its Digital Object Identifier - DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.17.10.105008


Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.