Detoxification of the photoeurable polymer by heat treatment for microstereolithography

Microsterolithograpy is one of a well known process in three dimensional rapid prototyping fields. The micro stereolithography had many advantages compared with other three dimensional fabrication methods, but until now an objects fabricated by microstereolithography could not be applied to biomedical or biological fields because the material of the micro stereolithography, that was photo curable polymer, had no biocompatibility despite wide needs for those fields. In this report, stereographic objects with both cytocompatibility and transparency was realized by high temperature heat process in nitrogen atmosphere. Precise high temperature heat process parameter was checked by MTT assay which could quantify cell activity. Investigating aqueous solution of generated gas from photo curable polymer and eluted material from photo curable polymer revealed both absorbance spectra had same peaks around 245nm. This results indicated reducing cytotoxic was due to sublimation and diffusion from cured photo curable polymer. This new heat process for microstereolithographic objects should be basic fabrication techniques for future development of biomedical micromachines, tissue engineering devices and portable health care devices.