3D Bioprinting in Tissue Engineering

Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering offer innovative approaches to repair or replace damaged tissues through the combination of biology, engineering, and biomaterials. In particular, the field of bone tissue engineering focuses on developing scaffolds that mimic the structure and function of the extracellular matrix, promoting new bone formation. Collagen is a promising material for scaffold fabrication due to its availability, biocompatibility, and bioactivity. This thesis focuses on the design and fabrication of collagen-based scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications. Crosslinking methods were applied to improve the mechanical stability of the scaffolds, while three-dimensional extrusion bioprinting was employed to produce customized structures. After fabrication, the scaffolds were evaluated for their structure, mechanical behavior, and thermal properties using analytical techniques.