3D‐printed PLA/Gel hybrid in liver tissue engineering: Effects of architecture on biological functions

Abstract

The liver is one of the vital organs in the body, and the gold standard of treatment for liver function impairment is liver transplantation, which poses many challenges.The specific three-dimensional (3D) structure of liver, which significantly impacts the growth and function of its cells, has made biofabrication with the 3D printing of scaffolds suitable for this approach. In this study, to investigate the effect of scaffold geometry on the performance of HepG2 cells, poly-lactic acid (PLA) polymer was used as the input of the fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D-printing machine.Samples with simple square and bioinspired hexagonal cross-sectional designs were printed. One percent and 2% of gelatin coating were applied to the 3D printed PLA to improve the wettability and surface properties of the scaffold. Scanning electron microscopy pictures were used to analyze the structural properties of PLA-Gel hybrid scaffolds, energy dispersive spectroscopy to investigate the presence of gelatin, water contact angle measurement for wettability, and weight loss for degradation. In vitro tests were performed by culturing HepG2 cells on the scaffold to evaluate the cell adhesion, viability, cytotoxicity, and specific liver functions. Then, high-precision scaffolds were printed and the presence of gelatin was detected. Also, the effect of geometry on cell function was confirmed in viability, adhesion, and functional tests. The albumin and urea production of the Hexagonal PLA scaffold was about 1.22 ± 0.02-fold higher than the square design in 3 days. This study will hopefully advance our understanding of liver tissue engineering toward a promising perspective for liver regeneration.

A Novel Approach to Orthotopic Hepatocyte Transplantation Engineered With Liver Hydrogel for Fibrotic Livers, Enhancing Cell–Cell Interaction and Angiogenesis

“…Rajalekshmi et al 36 reported that a fibrin-incorporated alginate dialdehyde–gelatin hydrogel has the potential to be used as a scaffold for liver tissue engineering using HepG2 cells. Moreover, Mirdamadi et al 37 reported that a 3D-printed poly-lactic acid (PLA)/Gel hybrid has architectural effects on biological functions in HepG2 cells. Thus, we used HepG2 cells as a model when initially evaluating the correlation between gel stiffness and hepatocyte functionality and establishing a 3D culture system.…”

Decellularized Placental Sponge: A Platform for Coculture of Mesenchymal Stem Cells/Macrophages to Assess an M2 Phenotype and Osteogenic Differentiation In Vitro and In Vivo

“…After 7 days of culture, the AD-MSCs/DPS constructs were gently washed with PBS, fixed with 2.5% glutaraldehyde, and then dehydrated in a graded ethanol series. The AD-MSCs/DPS was sputter-coated with a thin layer of gold and then analyzed under SEM (AIS2100; Seron Technologies, South Korea) …”

“…The AD-MSCs/DPS was sputtercoated with a thin layer of gold and then analyzed under SEM (AIS2100; Seron Technologies, South Korea). 54 2.4.4. H&E Staining.…”

Desarrollo y caracterización de polímeros de alto rendimiento medioambiental derivados de residuos agroindustriales y aditivos de origen renovable

“…Una de las aplicaciones más vanguardistas del PLA es en el campo de la impresión 3D, donde tienen especial interés los materiales con memoria de forma para aplicaciones en biomedicina y tecnología celular [150]. La bioimpresión es una tecnología muy novedosa en la cual se está estudiando el desarrollo de órganos artificiales y tejidos en diferentes sistemas del organismo, como por ejemplo hígados o riñones [151]. El PLA ha sido utilizado mediante esta técnica para imprimir tejidos iniciales que luego son incubados y convertidos en órganos completos.…”