Formulation and characterization of gelatin methacrylamide-hydroxypropyl methacrylate based bioink for bioprinting applications

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting has emerged as a revolutionary technology for constructing functional tissue equivalents/scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Bioink design is a crucial element in 3D bioprinting, which typically comprises a mixture of biomaterials, biological molecules or cells followed by its printing and tissue maturation. An ideal bioink should possess suitable physicochemical, mechanical, rheological, and biological features of the target tissue. However, mimicking multifaceted compositions similar to native extracellular matrix (ECM) with bioactive milieu of soluble and non-soluble factors is challenging. Herein, we report the formulation and characterization of a bioink system, comprising methacrylamide modified gelatin (GelMA) and 2-hydroxylpropyl methacrylate (HPMA) with a cost-effective redox initiators based cross-linking. GelMA was synthesized by reacting gelatin with methacrylic anhydride (MA) and subsequently, copolymerized with HPMA at room temperature by redox mechanism. Various hydrogel formulations by varying GelMA: HPMA w/v% ratios (G:HP) were studied as 10:0 (G100HP0), 9.5:0.5 (G95HP05), 9:1 (G90HP10), 8:2 (G80HP20), and 6:4 (G60HP40), to identify the best bioink composition. The formulations were characterized for its opacity, chemical, rheological, mechanical, porosity and swelling properties and cytocompatibility as per ISO-10993 standards. Cell encapsulation studies using live/dead assay analyzed cell viability inside the handprinted and 3D printed constructs. The preliminary results indicate successful formulation of cytocompatible bioink for potential 3D bioprinting and biofabrication applications.