4D Biofabrication of Mechanically Stable Tubular Constructs Using Shape Morphing Porous Bilayers for Vascularization Application

This study reports the fabrication of highly porous electrospun self-folding bilayers, which fold into tubular structures with excellent mechanical stability, allowing them to be easily manipulated and handled. Two kinds of bilayers based on biocompatible and biodegradable soft (PCL, polycaprolactone) and hard (PHB, poly-hydroxybutyrate) thermoplastic polymers have been fabricated and compared. Multi-scroll structures with tunable diameter are obtained after the shape transformation of the bilayer in aqueous media, where PCL-based bilayer rolled longitudinally and PHB-based one rolled transversely with respect to the fiber direction. A combination of higher elastic modulus and transverse orientation of fibers with respect to rolling direction allowed precise temporal control of shape transformation of PHB-bilayer – stress produced by swollen methacrylated hyaluronic acid (HA-MA) do not relax with time and folding is not affected by the fact that bilayer is fixed in unfolded state in cell culture medium for more than 1 h. This property of PHB-bilayer allowed cell culturing without a negative effect on its shape transformation ability. Moreover, PHB-based tubular structure demonstrated superior mechanical stability compared to PCL-based ones and do not collapse during manipulations that happened to PCL-based one. Additionally, PHB/HA-MA bilayers showed superior biocompatibility, degradability, and long-term stability compared to PCL/HA-MA.