Characterization of solid UV curable 3D printer resins for biological applications

Abstract

In this paper, we report a simple method to evaluate biocompatibility of solid UV cross-linked resin as a material for microfluidic devices that can be used for biological applications. We evaluated the biocompatibility of the material in two different ways (1) determining if the UV cured resin inhibits the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and (2) observing agglutination complex formed on the surface of the UV cured resin when anti-CRP antibodies and C- reactive protein (CRP) proteins were allowed to agglutinate. Six different types of 3D printer resins were compared to test the biocompatibility. The study showed that only few among them could be used for fabrication of micro channels and that had least effect on biological molecules that could be used for PCR and protein interactions. Through these studies it is possible to estimate the curing time of various resin and their type of interaction with biomolecules. This study finds importance in on-chip tissue engineering and organ-on-chip applications.