Ling Zhengyun, Zhao Jian, Song Shiyu, Xiao Shuwei, Wang Pengchao, An Ziyan, Fu Zhouyang, Shao Jinpeng, Zhang Zhuang, Fu Weijun, Song Shenghan
School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
Department of Urology, The Third Medical Center, PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100039, China.
Regen Biomater. 2023 Jun 7;10:rbad058. doi: 10.1093/rb/rbad058. eCollection 2023.
In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on the application of hydrogels in tissue engineering. The integration of 3D bioprinting technology has expanded the potential applications of hydrogels. However, few commercially available hydrogels used for 3D biological printing exhibit both excellent biocompatibility and mechanical properties. Gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) has good biocompatibility and is widely used in 3D bioprinting. However, its low mechanical properties limit its use as a standalone bioink for 3D bioprinting. In this work, we designed a biomaterial ink composed of GelMA and chitin nanocrystal (ChiNC). We explored fundamental printing properties of composite bioinks, including rheological properties, porosity, equilibrium swelling rate, mechanical properties, biocompatibility, effects on the secretion of angiogenic factors and fidelity of 3D bioprinting. The results showed that adding 1% (w/v) ChiNC to 10% (w/v) GelMA improved the mechanical properties and printability of the GelMA hydrogels, promoted cell adhesion, proliferation and vascularization and enabled the printing of complex 3D scaffolds. This strategy of incorporating ChiNC to enhance the performance of GelMA biomaterials could potentially be applied to other biomaterials, thereby expanding the range of materials available for use. Furthermore, in combination with 3D bioprinting technology, this approach could be leveraged to bioprint scaffolds with complex structures, further broadening the potential applications in tissue engineering.
近年来，水凝胶在组织工程中的应用受到越来越多的关注。3D生物打印技术的整合扩大了水凝胶的潜在应用范围。然而，用于3D生物打印的市售水凝胶中，很少有同时具备优异生物相容性和机械性能的。甲基丙烯酸明胶（GelMA）具有良好的生物相容性，被广泛应用于3D生物打印。然而，其较低的机械性能限制了它作为3D生物打印独立生物墨水的使用。在这项工作中，我们设计了一种由GelMA和几丁质纳米晶体（ChiNC）组成的生物材料墨水。我们探究了复合生物墨水的基本打印特性，包括流变学特性、孔隙率、平衡溶胀率、机械性能、生物相容性、对血管生成因子分泌的影响以及3D生物打印的保真度。结果表明，在10%（w/v）的GelMA中添加1%（w/v）的ChiNC可改善GelMA水凝胶的机械性能和可打印性，促进细胞黏附、增殖和血管生成，并能够打印复杂的3D支架。这种将ChiNC掺入以增强GelMA生物材料性能的策略可能会应用于其他生物材料，从而扩大可用材料的范围。此外，结合3D生物打印技术，这种方法可用于生物打印具有复杂结构的支架，进一步拓宽组织工程中的潜在应用范围。
