Metallic Vessel with Mesh Culture Surface Fabricated Using Three-dimensional Printing Engineers Tissue Culture Environment

Various culture devices have been developed as fundamental technologies for facilitating bioengineering studies. Culture devices are designed to prepare specific culture environments. Thus, both macrostructures and surface micromorphology should be considered in the device design. Although fabricating devices with elaborate designs incurs high production costs, disposable materials are typically used for culture devices. However, some metallic materials are strong, stable, and biocompatible. Bioengineers have not applied these materials to culture devices because of the difficulty of processing. An emerging technology using three-dimensional (3D) printing has been developed, which can produce complex designs using metal. We demonstrate the applicability and potential of metal 3D printing for fabricating culture devices toward the development of the bioengineering discipline. As a specific example, we fabricated metallic culture devices where the environment of cultured tissues can be improved. One of the biggest factors determining the culture environment is active media supply. To attain active media supply to the tissue, devices having culture surfaces with mesh structures having holes far larger than cells were proposed. Cell sheets were cultured as tissue models, realizing tissue culture with such structures. The cultured tissue showed increased metabolism, indicating enhanced media supply owing to mesh surfaces. The biocompatibility of the 3D printed metal device was confirmed by viability assays on cultured cells, and reusability of the device was confirmed by mechanical and biochemical evaluations. We believe this study serves as a reference for using metallic 3D printing as an option for fabricating culture devices, which will promote bioengineering research.