3D Fiber Reinforced Hydrogel Scaffolds by Melt Electrowriting and Gel Casting as a Hybrid Design for Wound Healing

Abstract

Emerging biomanufacturing technologies have revolutionized the field of tissue engineering by offering unprecedented possibilities. Over the past few years, new opportunities arose by combining traditional and novel fabrication techniques, shaping the hybrid designs in biofabrication. One of the potential application fields is skin tissue engineering, in which a combination of traditional principles of wound dressing with advanced biofabrication methods could yield more efficient therapies. In this study, a hybrid design of fiber‐reinforced scaffolds combined with gel casting is developed and the efficiency for in vivo wound healing applications is assessed. For this purpose, 3D fiber meshes produced by melt electrowriting are selectively filled with photocrosslinkable gelatin hydrogel matrices loaded with different growth factor carrier microspheres. Additionally, the influence of the inclusion of inorganic bioactive glass particles within the composite fibrous mesh is evaluated. Qualitative evaluation of secondary wound healing criteria and histological analysis shows that hybrid scaffolds containing growth factors and bioactive glass enhances the healing process significantly, compared to the designs merely providing a fiber‐reinforced bioactive hydrogel matrix as the wound dressing. This study aims to explore a new application area for melt electrowriting as a powerful tool in fabricating hybrid therapeutic designs for skin tissue engineering.

Gelatin and Bioactive Glass Composites for Tissue Engineering: A Review

“…Calcium stimulates osteoblastic proliferation and differentiation, matrix mineralization, expression of growth factors and migration of epidermal cells for wound healing. Phosphorus, in turn, is known to stimulate the expression of essential proteins in bone metabolism [ 25 , 26 , 119 ].…”

“…This is due to the presence of bioactive ions capable of reducing the inflammatory response and stimulating the secretion of proteins and growth factors [ 24 ]. For example, the presence of Si promotes an upregulation in the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and the difference between the results achieved only with the polymeric matrix after the addition of BG is evident [ 25 ]. In this scenario, there are many possibilities for the application of products based on gelatin and BG including: treatment of subcutaneous and cutaneous lesions [ 23 , 26 ], chronic wounds [ 27 ], nerve regeneration [ 28 ], muscles [ 29 ], cartilage [ 30 ] and others.…”

Gelatin and Bioactive Glass Composites for Tissue Engineering: A Review

“…Calcium stimulates osteoblastic proliferation and differentiation, matrix mineralization, expression of growth factors and migration of epidermal cells for wound healing. Phosphorus, in turn, is known to stimulate the expression of essential proteins in bone metabolism [25,26,95].…”

“…Afghan et al [25] synthesized hydrogels based on gelatin, polycaprolactone (PCL) and BG 60SiO2-30CaO-8P2O5-2Ag2O (mol%) derived from sol-gel (particle size <50 μm), which were converted into scaffolds for in vivo analysis. These were inserted into subcutaneous lesions generated in mice and monitored for 21 days.…”

“…Chen et al [27] reported the emergence of antibacterial activity after glass modification with Ce (gelatin/BG-Ce system), while Zheng et al [105] noticed an increase in the inhibition of these microorganisms after the addition of Cu in the composite based on gelatin and BG, which had already demonstrated an antibacterial effect. Afghah et al [25], on the other hand, mentioned an anti-inflammatory effect and the acceleration of healing as consequences of the addition of Ag2O in the gelatin-PCL/BG system. Dozens of other therapeutic elements can be tested for developing such composites.…”