Preparation and characterization of nanoclay-hydrogel composite support-bath for bioprinting of complex structures

Abstract

Three-dimensional bioprinting of cell-laden hydrogels in a sacrificial support-bath has recently emerged as a potential solution for fabricating complex biological structures. Physical properties of the support-bath strongly influence the bioprinting process and the outcome of the fabricated constructs. In this study, we reported the application of a composite Pluronic-nanoclay support-bath including calcium ions as the crosslinking agent for bioprinting of cell-laden alginate-based hydrogels. By tuning the rheological properties, a shear-thinning composite support-bath with fast self-recovery behavior was yielded, which allowed continuous printing of complex and large-scale structures. The printed structures were easily and efficiently harvested from the support-bath without disturbing their shape fidelity. Moreover, the results showed that support-bath assisted bioprinting process did not influence the viability of cells encapsulated within hydrogel. This study demonstrates that Pluronic-nanoclay support-bath can be utilized for bioprinting of complex, cell-laden constructs for vascular and other tissue engineering applications.

Polysaccharide-based hydrogels crosslink density equation: A rheological and LF-NMR study of polymer-polymer interactions

“…The mechanism of formation of the extended thixotropic LAP gel structure involves the reaction of LAP particles with hydroxide ions in water, which causes the dissolution of phosphate ions. It is followed by forming interactions between LAP particles while the sodium ions diffuse towards the surfaces within the galleries, allowing the formation of gel structure (Afghah et al, 2020). The addition of Laponite to biopolymer weak gel could contribute to faster development of final gel properties (aging), better control of release kinetics and also improve the mechanical properties of the matrix (Šebenik et al, 2020).…”

Advanced Bioink for 3D Bioprinting of Complex Free-Standing Structures with High Stiffness

“…The chemical transformation of gelatin to GelMA provides a means to overcome a key limitation of gelatin namely, the dependence of its physical state on temperature; by covalently crosslinking the acrylate groups to realize a permanent shape. Therefore, most reported 3D bioprinting of complex structures require either fugitive phases, like poly(ε-caprolactone), carbohydrate glass, alginate, or Pluronic F127 [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ], or post-processing like photo-crosslinking [ 17 , 18 ] or chemical crosslinking [ 19 , 20 , 21 ], which makes the fabrication complicated and highly demanding. Moreover, the addition of fugitive materials, crosslinking reagents and UV-light also introduces more variables that produce complexity, which might hinder the translation of these technologies to the clinical space, and additionally, residual fugitive phase and crosslinking chemistries can also present cytotoxicity.…”

3D Patterning within Hydrogels for the Recreation of Functional Biological Environments

“…Recently, the fabrication of anisotropic structures in a colloidal suspended media has emerged as a patterning technology. [ 263–265 ] Briefly, a shear thinning hydrogel (highly viscoelastic fluid with self‐healing capabilities) is used as media, known as sacrificial support‐bath, while a liquid or gelling material is printed within it. The so called “writing in the granular gel media” approach has explored the numerous advantages of this process.…”