BACKGROUND:In the treatment of skin trauma with active repair,tissue engineering techniques are needed to generate new tissue to replace necrotic tissue.Skin scaffolds have a good application prospect in the field of wound repair.Skin scaffolds need to present three-dimensional porous structures with certain mechanical strength to meet the needs of cell proliferation and division.However,the mechanical strength of the currently used gelatin-based biomaterials is weak and cannot meet the requirements of the use of skin scaffolds. OBJECTIVE:To study the 3D printing process used in the preparation of tissue engineering skin scaffolds by gelatin/oxidized nanocellulose composites,and focus on the relationship between the porosity and mechanical strength of the scaffolds prepared under different process parameters. METHODS:Oxidized nanocellulose whiskers at 10%concentration were extracted from Humulus scandens and then compounded with 5%gelatin to obtain gelatin/oxidized nanocellulose composites.The elastic modulus of gelatin and gelatin/oxidized nanocellulose composite was determined.Skin scaffolds were prepared by 3D printing extrusion molding using gelatin/oxidized nanocellulose composite as the base material.Mechanical and rheological properties of the composite were tested to determine extrusion molding parameters(filling gap 1.5-2.5 mm,uniform distribution of 0.1 mm;air pressure of 160-200 kPa),and the skin scaffold with a three-dimensional porous structure was prepared.The compressive performance of the skin scaffold was tested and compared with the finite element analysis results.The relationship between the filling gap and the porosity and mechanical strength of the scaffold was demonstrated. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)The elastic modulus of 5%gelatin was increased by 8.84 times by adding 10%oxidized nanocellulose whisker.A gel filament with a diameter of 1 mm was obtained by extrusion at the air pressure of 160 kPa.When the filling gap increased from 1.5 mm to 2.5 mm,the theoretical porosity of the scaffold increased from 33%to 60%,but the compressive strength decreased from 230 000 Pa to 95 000 Pa.(2)These findings showed that the skin scaffold with theoretical porosity of 50%and elastic modulus of 160 000 Pa was prepared by using 2 mm filling gap.The scaffold had a clear three-dimensional porous structure.