Printing three-dimensional tissue analogues with decellularized extracellular matrix bioink

Abstract

The ability to print and pattern all the components that make up a tissue (cells and matrix materials) in three dimensions to generate structures similar to tissues is an exciting prospect of bioprinting. However, the majority of the matrix materials used so far for bioprinting cannot represent the complexity of natural extracellular matrix (ECM) and thus are unable to reconstitute the intrinsic cellular morphologies and functions. Here, we develop a method for the bioprinting of cell-laden constructs with novel decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) bioink capable of providing an optimized microenvironment conducive to the growth of three-dimensional structured tissue. We show the versatility and flexibility of the developed bioprinting process using tissue-specific dECM bioinks, including adipose, cartilage and heart tissues, capable of providing crucial cues for cells engraftment, survival and long-term function. We achieve high cell viability and functionality of the printed dECM structures using our bioprinting method.

3D‐Bioprinted Osteoblast‐Laden Nanocomposite Hydrogel Constructs with Induced Microenvironments Promote Cell Viability, Differentiation, and Osteogenesis both In Vitro and In Vivo

“…The choice of concentration is important, not only for printability but also the primary hydrogel structure should not be impacted by the addition of the second material 10. Moreover, when the HA concentration exceeds 20%, the printing pressure needed for successful printing would surpass 100 kPa, which would negatively impact on the viability of the printed cells 8, 11. Due to the susceptibility of cells to UV‐related damage,12 we evaluated the ability of HA to act as a protective barrier against UV‐damage (Figure 2D).…”

“…Pati et al first attempted to develop novel decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) bio‐inks which could provide an optimized microenvironment and was conducive to the growth of 3D structured tissue in the long term. Their potential application for adipose, cartilage, and heart tissue regeneration was explored, but bone tissue was not mentioned 8. Moreover, the inducement properties of this bio‐ink were only validated in vitro and the tedious preparation process and expensive cost further limit its application prospects.…”

Advances in bioprinted cell-laden hydrogels for skin tissue engineering

“…In these processes, the material to be printed, known as bioink, is loaded in a reservoir and subsequently deposited onto a receiving substrate through the action of light, pressurized air, vibration, thermal or mechanical effects. Bioinks consist of hydrogel precursor solutions or decellularized extracellular matrix loadable with cells and/or bioactive factors that play a pivotal role on the overall reproducibility of the printing process and quality of the printed construct [100,143,169,185]. Depending on the bioprinting technique, bioinks can be Drawbacks Mechanical stresses generated during the bioink deposition; difficult to produce hierarchical 3D constructs with intricate geometries deposited as small droplets (inkjet and laser-assisted technologies) or continuous strands of material (extrusionbased technologies), resulting in different printing times and constructs with distinct levels of heterogeneity, resolution and accuracy [111,125].…”

Digital biomanufacturing supporting vascularization in 3D bioprinting

“…For example, bioinks deposited for ancillary buttressing of the primary product (support bioinks), fluids to be removed after leaving a void (sacrificial or fugitive bioinks) and even cell-free matrix solutions intended to be immediately populated with cells post-printing (printed scaffold bioinks). Also, there are printing technologies that either employ optimized de-cellularized natural matrices [10,11] , print into polymerization-initiation chemical baths (direct-writing) [12] or whose cell-laden bioinks do not require a scaffold component at all [13] .…”