Fan Rong, Piou Marine, Darling Evan, Cormier Denis, Sun Jun, Wan Jiandi
Microsystems Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA.
Department of Imaging and Photographic Technologies, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA.
J Biomater Appl. 2016 Nov;31(5):684-692. doi: 10.1177/0885328216669238. Epub 2016 Sep 16.
3D printing of biological architectures that mimic the structural and functional features of in vivo tissues is of great interest in tissue engineering and the development of transplantable organ constructs. Printable bio-inks that are compatible with cellular activities play critical roles in the process of 3D bio-printing. Although a variety of hydrogels have been used as bio-inks for 3D bio-printing, they inherit poor mechanical properties and/or the lack of essential protein components that compromise their performance. Here, a hybrid Matrigel-agarose hydrogel system has been demonstrated that possesses both desired rheological properties for bio-printing and biocompatibility for long-term (11 days) cell culture. The agarose component in the hybrid hydrogel system enables the maintenance of 3D-printed structures, whereas Matrigel provides essential microenvironments for cell growth. When human intestinal epithelial HCT116 cells are encapsulated in the printed Matrigel-agarose constructs, high cell viability and proper cell spreading morphology are observed. Given that Matrigel is used extensively for 3D cell culturing, the developed 3D-printable Matrigel-agarose system will open a new way to construct Matrigel-based 3D constructs for cell culture and tissue engineering.
模仿体内组织的结构和功能特征的生物结构的3D打印在组织工程和可移植器官构建体的开发中具有重大意义。与细胞活动兼容的可打印生物墨水在3D生物打印过程中起着关键作用。尽管多种水凝胶已被用作3D生物打印的生物墨水，但它们存在机械性能差和/或缺乏关键蛋白质成分的问题，这会影响其性能。在此，已证明一种混合基质胶-琼脂糖水凝胶系统既具有生物打印所需的流变学特性，又具有长期（11天）细胞培养的生物相容性。混合水凝胶系统中的琼脂糖成分能维持3D打印结构，而基质胶为细胞生长提供关键微环境。当人肠上皮HCT116细胞被封装在打印的基质胶-琼脂糖构建体中时，可观察到高细胞活力和适当的细胞铺展形态。鉴于基质胶广泛用于3D细胞培养，所开发的可3D打印的基质胶-琼脂糖系统将为构建用于细胞培养和组织工程的基于基质胶的3D构建体开辟一条新途径。
