Development of Microstereolithography with Cytocompatibility

Abstract

The microsterolithography, which was one of the pioneering 3D-microfabrication technology, was developed by Ikuta in 1992. In microstereolithography, 3D structures were made by micro solidification of photo curable resin irradiated by ultraviolet laser. But commercial resin for microsterolithography had a lack of biocompatibility, so it was impossible to apply the microsterolithography to biomedical devices which touched directly cells or living organisms. In this paper, new type photo curable resins were not developed, but new methods applying cytocompatibility to commercial photo curable resin which stably had a precise resolution were challengingly investigated. The cytotoxicity was examined on various conditions, and the cytocompatibility was evaluated quantitatively. Eventually, parameters of the process that cell culture even in microstereolithographic wells could proliferate in equal rate with a commercial tissue culture polystylene dishes were discovered. This process did not limited a shape of structures. Moreover, although the transformation under heat-treatment of macro structures would happen, the advantage of scaling law for microstructures in which transformation under heat-treatment did not happen was taken. It was shown to applied to various photo curable resin. This process could be a basic key technology to accelerate expotentialy application researches in biochemistry, biology and biomedical field of microstereolithography.