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Three dimensional (3D) printing technology in veterinary anatomy education is an evolving area providing accurately, rapidly, and reproducibly anatomical specimens. In this study, 3D printed sheep brain models were produced using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning, and their effectiveness was compared with cadaveric materials by creating three groups from undergraduate veterinary students. The study was performed when veterinary anatomy lectures in Erciyes University were carried out via live fully online learning platforms in virtual classes like many other universities in the world due the Covid-19 pandemic. Participants were subjected to an approximately 30 minute online lecture on the external and internal anatomy of the sheep brain using cadaveric materials only (n=21, Group 1), 3D printed models only (n=20, Group 2), or a combination of cadaveric materials and 3D printed models (n=20, Group 3) as teaching aids. Online post-tests carried out following the online lectures showed no statistically significant difference between the scores of the groups. Furthermore, online questionnaires conducted after the post-tests demonstrated that 3D printed models helped students learn about sheep brain anatomy. The finding of this study suggests that 3D printed models can be considered as a supplement teaching resource to cadaveric materials in veterinary anatomy education particularly when students are supposed to learn more in a limited time regardless of whether or not the Covid-19 pandemic might end.

© 2021 The Textile Institute.The aim of this study was to design a knitted scaffold for myocardial tissue engineering applications. The textile structure of pile loop knit fabric (terry fabric) was selected as a three dimensional (3 D) scaffold. The candidate fabrics were knitted from textured polyethylene terephthalate (PET) yarns. Biocompatible porous structures were obtained and the mechanical properties of the fabrics were analyzed. The values of the stiffness (Young’s modulus) of the structures were observed to range from 124.09 to 167.01 kPa in the direction of wales, and from 40.16 to 85.28 kPa in the direction of courses at 20% strain, which can be stated not to be far from those reported for the human myocardium. Furthermore, the knit structures were observed to have a pore network mainly consisting of macropores of 100 − 400 µm that were well interconnected with micropores (

© 2021 The Textile Institute.Cardiac patch has been proposed as an alternative therapeutic tissue engineering strategy to treat damaged heart for patients who survive the acute myocardial infarction (MI). To that end, studies have focused on designing an ideal cardiac patch assisting myocardium to repair itself. The engineering of three dimensional (3 D) anisotropic knitted scaffolds could be an efficient and effective strategy for cardiac patches. Thus, the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pile loop knit fabrics were fabricated as 3 D scaffolds, where the values of stiffness (Young’s modulus) of the scaffolds were similar to those reported for the human myocardium. Anisotropic porous knitted scaffolds supported the adhesion and proliferation of murine C2C12 myoblasts cell line in vitro. Scaffolds with a high surface to volume ratio and porosity exhibited superior performance in terms of cell adhesion and proliferation. Furthermore, out of thirteen proinflammatory cytokines, the levels of three cytokines including IL-1α, IL-1β, and IL-11 were observed to be higher in cells seeded on scaffolds coated with fibronectin than those in related control groups. Thus, the proposed knitted structure can potentially be used for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.