Polymer based scaffolds for tissue regeneration by stereolithography

Stereolithography is a rapid prototyping technique, introduced in 1980s, that enables the realization of complex 3D structures for tissue engineering directly from a computer model. Although many other 3D printing technique has been developed over the last decades, it has the highest fabrication accuracy and an increasing number of materials that can be processed is becoming available. In this review we show the characteristic features of the stereolithography technique and the design of polymers (from synthetic and natural origin) with tailored structure, architecture, and functionality for stereolithography to mimic a broad range of human tissue. In addition use of two-photon polymerization, for production of tissue engineering scaffolds with smaller features than conventional stereolithography technology, is considered.