Bioprinting Via a Dual-Gel Bioink Based on Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) and Solubilized Extracellular Matrix towards Cartilage Engineering.

Clemens Van Blitterswijk,Carlos Mota,Lorenzo Moroni,Matthew B Baker,Shahzad Hafeez,Mohsen Setayeshmehr

doi:10.3390/ijms22083901

Clemens Van Blitterswijk, Carlos Mota + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22083901

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Abstract

Various hydrogel systems have been developed as biomaterial inks for bioprinting, including natural and synthetic polymers. However, the available biomaterial inks, which allow printability, cell viability, and user-defined customization, remains limited. Incorporation of biological extracellular matrix materials into tunable synthetic polymers can merge the benefits of both systems towards versatile materials for biofabrication. The aim of this study was to develop novel, cell compatible dual-component biomaterial inks and bioinks based on poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and solubilized decellularized cartilage matrix (SDCM) hydrogels that can be utilized for cartilage bioprinting. In a first approach, PVA was modified with amine groups (PVA-A), and mixed with SDCM. The printability of the PVA-A/SDCM formulations cross-linked by genipin was evaluated. On the second approach, the PVA was functionalized with cis-5-norbornene-endo-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride (PVA-Nb) to allow an ultrafast light-curing thiol-ene cross-linking. Comprehensive experiments were conducted to evaluate the influence of the SDCM ratio in mechanical properties, water uptake, swelling, cell viability, and printability of the PVA-based formulations. The studies performed with the PVA-A/SDCM formulations cross-linked by genipin showed printability, but poor shape retention due to slow cross-linking kinetics. On the other hand, the PVA-Nb/SDCM showed good printability. The results showed that incorporation of SDCM into PVA-Nb reduces the compression modulus, enhance cell viability, and bioprintability and modulate the swelling ratio of the resulted hydrogels. Results indicated that PVA-Nb hydrogels containing SDCM could be considered as versatile bioinks for cartilage bioprinting.

Highlights

Additive manufacturing techniques are increasingly used for biofabrication of threedimensional (3D) scaffolds and constructs in tissue engineering (TE) [1]
We recently reported the chondroinductive potential of genipin cross-linked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/devitalized cartilage (DC) matrix in vitro, where we observed chondroinductivity of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells cultured on extracellular matrix (ECM)-based scaffolds [32,35]
The aim of this study was to develop cell-compatible PVA/solubilized decellularized cartilage matrix (SDCM) biomaterial inks that can be used for cartilage bioprinting purposes

Summary

Introduction

Additive manufacturing techniques are increasingly used for biofabrication of threedimensional (3D) scaffolds and constructs in tissue engineering (TE) [1]. Bioprinting offers controlled patterning and deposition of polymeric hydrogels or composites to fabricate well-defined constructs with the capability to combine various material and their compositions [2]. The bioprinting of cell-laden biomaterials, termed bioinks, allows the deposition of cells encapsulated in a defined 3D construct and can develop into living tissue-engineered constructs [3]. A number of bioprinters with different dispensing principles have been commercialized, including inkjet or droplet-based, extrusion or pressure-based, and laser-assisted bioprinting [5]. All of these systems allow spatial control over bioink deposition while offering distinctive ranges of processable inks formulations.

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