Background: The uterus is a female organ of the reproductive system.
3D printing as a method by which complex and carefully design biological structures of in vivo tissues are simulated is of a great interest in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering in reproductive system. Solved biomaterials that are used, as bio-inks in
3D printing should be biocompatible, degradable, absorbable and cell friendly, are so significant in development of 3D printed uterus construct. In spite the fact that different kinds of synthetic materials as a bio-ink have been applied for uterus 3D printing, due to their insufficiency of fundamental proteins and being poor in mechanical and surface properties, their performance were not acceptable.Objective: We decided to apply
PLA as a proper synthetic material for producing scaffold of tissue engineered uterus to culture endometrial cells. In this in vitro study three women with a history of endometriosis who were referred to the infertility clinic of Royan institute were recruited. All cases signed an informed consent form. This study was approved by the ethical committee of Royan institute that has been started on May 2018.Materials and Methods: The polylactic acid granules are solved in the mixture of NaOH with steeled water as a solvent with the ratio of one fifth. Solution was loaded into Quantum 2035
3D printing device with Cura software and MK9 extruder. The printer is one headed whose internal diameter of the head is changeable about 0.4 to 1mm.The final product size is 24*20*35 cm with the 100-micron accuracy and the thickness of the layer is about 60-400 micron. The speed of print is about 120 mm in sec, and the speed of head movement and the temperature of head is 180 mm in sec and 270o, in order. The primary endometrial cell culture on this scaffold was performed using DMEM/F12 with 10% FBS culture medium plus 1% Pen-Strep up to 50% of confluence. The participants in this investigation were 3 persons who were under sampling by using piple for the endometriosis reason.Results: We could produce 3D uterus shape scaffold, which is made of Polylactic acid that is porous, cell friendly, biocompatible and biodegradable. The initial endometrium primary cell culture on this scaffold was successfully performed. Our primary results are compatible with previous studies, which were used different scaffolds for 3D culture of endometrial cell. However, our scaffold was much more similar to in vivo study anatomically. In addition, it seems the function of this scaffold is more applicable than others that were used in endometrial 3D culture.Conclusion: Therefore, we concluded that our 3D uterus shaped scaffold could be used as a perfect in vitro model for endometrial culturing in future studies. This model will be much more similar to the in vivo investigations than others including 2D culturing systems.