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  • Coaxial extrusion bioprinting of 3D microfibrous constructs with cell-favorable gelatin methacryloyl microenvironments.

Coaxial extrusion bioprinting of 3D microfibrous constructs with cell-favorable gelatin methacryloyl microenvironments.

Biofabrication (2017-11-28)
Wanjun Liu, Zhe Zhong, Ning Hu, Yixiao Zhou, Lucia Maggio, Amir K Miri, Alessio Fragasso, Xiangyu Jin, Ali Khademhosseini, Yu Shrike Zhang
ABSTRACT

Bioinks with shear-thinning/rapid solidification properties and strong mechanics are usually needed for the bioprinting of three-dimensional (3D) cell-laden constructs. As such, it remains challenging to generate soft constructs from bioinks at low concentrations that are favorable for cellular activities. Herein, we report a strategy to fabricate cell-laden constructs with tunable 3D microenvironments achieved by bioprinting of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA)/alginate core/sheath microfibers, where the alginate sheath serves as a template to support and confine the GelMA pre-hydrogel in the core during the extrusion process, allowing for subsequent UV crosslinking. This novel strategy minimizes the bioprinting requirements for the core bioink, and facilitates the fabrication of cell-laden GelMA constructs at low concentrations. We first showed the capability of generating various alginate hollow microfibrous constructs using a coaxial nozzle setup, and verified the diffusibility and perfusability of the bioprinted hollow structures that are important for the tissue engineering applications. More importantly, the hollow alginate microfibers were then used as templates for generating cell-laden GelMA constructs with soft microenvironments, by using GelMA pre-hydrogel as the bioink for the core phase during bioprinting. As such, GelMA constructs at extremely low concentrations (<2.0%) could be extruded to effectively support cellular activities including proliferation and spreading for various cell types. We believe that our strategy is likely to provide broad opportunities in bioprinting of 3D constructs with cell-favorable microenvironments for applications in tissue engineering and pharmaceutical screening.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
Methacrylic anhydride, contains 2,000 ppm topanol A as inhibitor, ≥94%
Sigma-Aldrich
TissueFab® bioink , (Gel)ma -VIS/405nm, low endotoxin
Sigma-Aldrich
TissueFab® bioink , Alg(Gel)ma -UV/365 nm
Sigma-Aldrich
TissueFab® bioink , Alg(Gel)ma -Vis/525 nm
Sigma-Aldrich
TissueFab® bioink , (Gel)ma -UV/365 nm
Sigma-Aldrich
TissueFab® bioink kit, Fibronectin-UV/365nm
Sigma-Aldrich
TissueFab® bioink kit, (Gel)ma Fibrin (Vis/405), low endotoxin
Sigma-Aldrich
TissueFab® bioink kit, (Gel)ma Laminin -UV/365 nm, low endotoxin
Sigma-Aldrich
TissueFab® bioink kit, (Gel)ma Fibrin (UV/365), low endotoxin