Brussels Photonics (B-PHOT), Department of Applied Physics and Photonics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium; Polymer Chemistry & Biomaterials Group, Centre of Macromolecular Chemistry (CMaC), Gent Alliance for Tissue Engineering (GATE), Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281, S4-Bis, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Polymer Chemistry & Biomaterials Group, Centre of Macromolecular Chemistry (CMaC), Gent Alliance for Tissue Engineering (GATE), Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281, S4-Bis, 9000 Ghent, Belgium; Department of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Ghent University Hospital, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 2K12, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2019 Nov 1;140:929-938. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2019.08.124. Epub 2019 Aug 15.
Current soft tissue repair techniques for women with breast cancer remain associated with several drawbacks including surgical complications and a high resorption rate for lipofilling techniques. Hence, the need to develop improved adipose tissue reconstruction strategies. Additive manufacturing can be a promising tool towards the development of patient-specific scaffolds which are able to support adipose tissue engineering. In the present work, scaffolds composed of both methacrylamide-modified gelatin (Gel-MA) and methacrylated κ-carrageenan (Car-MA), i.e. hydrogel blends, were developed using extrusion-based 3D printing in order to establish a close resemblance to the native extracellular matrix. The hydrogel blends were benchmarked to scaffolds constituting of only Gel-MA. Our results indicate that both types of scaffolds remain stable over time (21 days), are able to absorb large amounts of water and exhibit mechanical properties comparable to those of native breast tissue (2 kPa). Furthermore, a similar cell viability (> 90%) and proliferation rate after 14 days was obtained for adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ASCs) upon seeding onto both types of scaffolds. Additionally, the ASCs were able to differentiate into the adipogenic lineage on the hydrogel blend scaffolds, although their differentiation potential was lower compared to that of ASCs seeded onto the Gel-MA scaffolds.
目前，女性乳腺癌的软组织修复技术仍然存在一些缺点，包括手术并发症和脂肪填充技术的高吸收率。因此，需要开发改进的脂肪组织重建策略。增材制造可以成为开发能够支持脂肪组织工程的患者特异性支架的有前途的工具。在本工作中，使用基于挤出的 3D 打印技术开发了由甲基丙烯酰胺修饰的明胶（Gel-MA）和甲基丙烯酰化κ-卡拉胶（Car-MA）组成的支架，即水凝胶混合物，以建立与天然细胞外基质的紧密相似性。将水凝胶混合物与仅由 Gel-MA 组成的支架进行了基准测试。我们的结果表明，这两种类型的支架在 21 天的时间内保持稳定，能够吸收大量水分，并表现出与天然乳房组织相当的机械性能（2kPa）。此外，在接种到两种类型的支架上后，脂肪组织来源的干细胞（ASCs）的细胞活力（>90%）和增殖率在 14 天后相似。此外，ASCs 能够在水凝胶混合物支架上分化为脂肪生成谱系，尽管与接种到 Gel-MA 支架上的 ASCs 相比，其分化潜力较低。
