Cryopreserved cell-laden alginate microgel bioink for 3D bioprinting of living tissues

Abstract

Cell-laden microgels have been used as tissue building blocks to create three-dimensional (3D) tissues and organs. However, traditional assembly methods cannot be used to fabricate functional tissue constructs with biomechanical and structural complexity. In this study, we present directed assembly of cell-laden dual-crosslinkable alginate microgels that comprised oxidized and methacrylated alginate (OMA). Cell-laden OMA microgels can be directly assembled into well-defined 3D shapes and structures under low-level ultraviolet light. Stem cell–laden OMA microgels can be successfully cryopreserved for long-term storage and on-demand applications, and the recovered encapsulated cells maintained equivalent viability and functionality to the freshly processed stem cells. Finally, we have successfully demonstrated that cell-laden microgels can be assembled into complicated 3D tissue structures via freeform reversible embedding of suspended hydrogels (FRESH) 3D bioprinting. This highly innovative bottom-up strategy using FRESH 3D bioprinting of cell-laden OMA microgels, which are cryopreservable, provides a powerful and highly scalable tool for fabrication of customized and biomimetic 3D tissue constructs.