Prometheus, Division of Skeletal Tissue Engineering, KU Leuven, O&N 1, Herestraat 49, Box 813, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Department of Materials Engineering, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 44, Box 2450, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
Biofabrication. 2021 Aug 5;13(4). doi: 10.1088/1758-5090/ac0ff0.
Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is an additive manufacturing process in which the combination of biomaterials and living cells, referred to as a bioink, is deposited layer-by-layer to form biologically active 3D tissue constructs. Recent advancements in the field show that the success of this technology requires the development of novel biomaterials or the improvement of existing bioinks. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is one of the well-known synthetic biomaterials and has been commonly used as a photocrosslinkable bioink for bioprinting; however, other types of cell-friendly crosslinking mechanisms to form PEG hydrogels need to be explored for bioprinting and tissue engineering. In this work, we proposed micro-capillary based bioprinting of a novel molecularly engineered PEG-based bioink that transiently incorporates low molecular weight gelatin (LMWG) fragments. The rheological properties and release profile of the LMWG fragments were characterized, and their presence during hydrogel formation had no effect on the swelling ratio or sol fraction when compared to PEG hydrogels formed without the LMWG fragments. For bioprinting, PEG was first functionalized with cell-adhesive RGD ligands and was then crosslinked using protease-sensitive peptides via a Michael-type addition reaction inside the micro-capillary. The printability was assessed by the analysis of extrudability, shape fidelity, and printing accuracy of the hydrogel filaments after the optimization of the gelation conditions of the PEG-based bioink. The LMWG fragments supplemented into the bioink allowed the extrusion of smooth and uniform cylindrical strands of the hydrogel and improved shape fidelity and printing accuracy. Encapsulated cells in both bioprinted and non-bioprinted PEG-based hydrogels showed high viability and continued to proliferate over time in culture with a well-defined cell morphology depending on the presence of the cell adhesive peptide RGD. The presented micro-capillary based bioprinting process for a novel PEG-based bioink can be promising to construct complex 3D structures with micro-scale range and spatiotemporal variations without using any cytotoxic photoinitiator, UV light, or polymer support.
三维(3D)生物打印是一种增材制造工艺,其中生物材料和活细胞的组合,称为生物墨水,逐层沉积以形成具有生物活性的 3D 组织构建体。该领域的最新进展表明,这项技术的成功需要开发新型生物材料或改进现有的生物墨水。聚乙二醇(PEG)是一种众所周知的合成生物材料,已被广泛用作用于生物打印的光交联生物墨水;然而,需要探索其他类型的细胞友好型交联机制来形成用于生物打印和组织工程的 PEG 水凝胶。在这项工作中,我们提出了基于微通道的新型分子工程 PEG 基生物墨水的生物打印,该生物墨水瞬时掺入低分子量明胶(LMWG)片段。对 LMWG 片段的流变性能和释放特性进行了表征,并且与没有 LMWG 片段形成的 PEG 水凝胶相比,在水凝胶形成过程中它们的存在对溶胀比或溶胶分数没有影响。对于生物打印,首先将 PEG 用细胞黏附性 RGD 配体功能化,然后通过迈克尔型加成反应在微通道内用蛋白酶敏感肽交联。通过分析优化的 PEG 基生物墨水凝胶条件下的挤出性、形状保真度和打印精度来评估可打印性。补充到生物墨水中的 LMWG 片段允许挤出光滑且均匀的水凝胶圆柱状丝,并且提高了形状保真度和打印精度。在生物打印和非生物打印的 PEG 基水凝胶中包封的细胞表现出高活力,并在培养过程中随着时间的推移继续增殖,具有明确的细胞形态,这取决于细胞黏附肽 RGD 的存在。用于新型 PEG 基生物墨水的提出的基于微通道的生物打印工艺有望构建具有微尺度范围和时空变化的复杂 3D 结构,而无需使用任何细胞毒性光引发剂、UV 光或聚合物支撑。
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