Then, according to the type of stimulus, recent applications of 4D printing in constructing smart cardiovascular implants and future perspectives are discussed.Ĭardiovascular structures such as cardiac valves and vascular branches have a complicated architecture potentially requiring a customized design and fabrication of implants. In this review, the principles of 4D printing with a focus on the applied stimuli are explained and the underlying 3D printing technologies are presented. Especially for cardiovascular implants, 4D printing can promisingly create programmable, adaptable prostheses, which facilitates implantation and/or create the topology of the target tissue post implantation. 4D printing is an innovative fabrication approach combining 3D printing and smart materials, also known as stimuli-responsive materials. Although the development of 3D printing technology increased the reproducibility and accuracy of scaffold fabrication, 3D printed scaffolds can still be further improved to resemble the native anatomy. Smart materials are able to react to different stimuli and adapt their shape to the environment. 2Medical Materials and Implants, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Munich School of BioEngineering, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.1Cardiovascular Developmental Biology, Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.Journal reference: Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.Fatemeh Kabirian 1* Petra Mela 2 Ruth Heying 1 “No new chemistries, materials or equipment are involved, so it’s ready for anyone to start using immediately.” Moreover, the technology could easily be used by people with other ideas, says Spinks. And flat-pack furniture could assemble itself when heated. By fine-tuning the temperature transition point, medicine capsules could also be designed to bend and break open when body temperature rises with infection. “This rules out applications that require reversible shape changes, like artificial muscles for robots and prosthetics,” he says.īut the method could be used to make complex structures that don’t require such shape-shifting, says Spinks.įor example, compact cardiac stents – tubes for placing in blood vessels to keep them open – could open up in an artery in response to body temperature. One limitation to the technique is that it permanently fixes the structure in place after one heating cycle, says Geoff Spinks at the University of Wollongong in Australia. As the strip cools, the shape-memory polymer stiffens again and locks the object into its new, curved configuration. When heated to 45☌, the shape-memory polymer component relaxes and allows the elastomer to bend. The strips, which can be printed in less than a minute, are made from layers of a stiff shape-memory polymer paired with a rubbery elastomer – a polymer with elastic properties.
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