Assessment of the biocompatibility of three-dimensional-printed polymers using multispecies toxicity tests

Abstract

Additive manufacturing was adopted in multiple fields of life sciences. It is also becoming a popular tool for rapid prototyping of microfluidic and biomedical devices. Limited studies have been performed to investigate the biological implications of using 3D printed polymers. Here we assessed the biocompatibility of seven commercially available polymers, using a battery of standardized bioassays for chemical risk assessment. Our data show that leachates from photopolymers substrata appear to be very toxic to vertebrates and several invertebrate indicator organisms. These results demonstrate significant consequences for the use of selected photopolymers in the fabrication of bio-devices.