School of Bio Sciences and Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India; Human Organ Manufacturing Engineering (HOME) Lab, Centre for Biomaterials, Cellular and Molecular Theranostics, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India.
Human Organ Manufacturing Engineering (HOME) Lab, Centre for Biomaterials, Cellular and Molecular Theranostics, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 Feb;258(Pt 2):128986. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.128986. Epub 2023 Dec 27.
Plant-based hydrogels have wide application as scaffolds in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine due to their low cost and excellent biocompatibility. Scaffolds act as vehicles for cell-based therapeutics and regenerating diseased tissue. While there is a plethora of methods to generate hydrogels with tunable properties to mimic the tissue of interest, 3D bioprinting is a novel emerging technology with the capability to generate versatile patient-specific scaffolds typically embedded with tissue specific cells. Starch-based hydrogels are garnering attention in extrusion-based 3D printing, however owing to their poor mechanical strength and degradation render this material inefficient in its native form. Additionally, the effect of various printing process parameters on mechanical strength and bioactivity is poorly understood. In the present study, we investigate the use of starch and gelatin as composite biomaterial ink and its effect on mechanical, physical and biological properties. We also investigated printability of composite hydrogels with the aim to understand the correlation between two infill patterns and its effect on mechanical, physicochemical, and biological properties. Our results showed that the composite hydrogels had competent mechanical properties and suitable bioactivity when seeded with H9C2 cardiomyocytes. Rheometric analyses provided a broader insight into the required viscosity for printing and has a direct correlation with the composition of the hydrogel. Thus, the composite materials are found to have tissue-specific mechanical properties and may serve as a better, cheaper and personalized alternative to existing scaffolds for the fabrication of engineered cardiac tissue.
基于植物的水凝胶由于其低成本和优异的生物相容性而在组织工程和再生医学中作为支架具有广泛的应用。支架作为基于细胞的治疗和再生病变组织的载体。虽然有很多方法可以生成具有可调节特性的水凝胶来模拟感兴趣的组织，但 3D 生物打印是一种新兴的新技术，具有生成多功能患者特异性支架的能力，这些支架通常嵌入具有组织特异性的细胞。基于淀粉的水凝胶在基于挤出的 3D 打印中受到关注，然而，由于其机械强度差和降解，使得这种材料在其天然形式下效率低下。此外，各种打印工艺参数对机械强度和生物活性的影响知之甚少。在本研究中，我们研究了使用淀粉和明胶作为复合生物材料墨水及其对机械、物理和生物学性质的影响。我们还研究了复合水凝胶的可打印性，目的是了解两种填充图案及其对机械、物理化学和生物学性质的影响之间的相关性。我们的结果表明，当用 H9C2 心肌细胞接种时，复合水凝胶具有良好的机械性能和合适的生物活性。流变学分析提供了对打印所需粘度的更广泛了解，并且与水凝胶的组成直接相关。因此，发现复合材料具有组织特异性的机械性能，并且可能作为现有支架的更好、更便宜和个性化的替代品，用于制造工程心脏组织。
