3D Bioplotter Research Papers

Microspheres, synthesized from diverse natural or synthetic polymers, are readily utilized in biomedical tissue engineering to improve the healing of various tissues. Their ability to encapsulate growth factors, therapeutics, and natural biomolecules, which can aid tissue regeneration, makes microspheres invaluable for future clinical therapies. While microsphere-supplemented scaffolds have been investigated, a pure microsphere scaffold with an optimized architecture has been challenging to create via 3D printing methods due to issues that prevent consistent deposition of microsphere-based materials and their ability to maintain the shape of the 3D-printed structure. Utilizing the extrusion printing process, we established a methodology that not only…

3D bioprinting has emerged as a viable tool to fabricate 3D tissue constructs with high precision using various bioinks which offer instantaneous gelation, shape fidelity, and cytocompatibility. Among various bioinks, cellulose is the most abundantly available natural polymer & widely used as bioink for 3D bioprinting applications. To mitigate the demanding crosslinking needs of cellulose, it is frequently chemically modified or blended with other polymers to develop stable hydrogels. In this study, we have developed a thermoresponsive, composite bioink using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and agarose in different ratios (9:1, 8:2, 7:3, 6:4, and 5:5). Among the tested combinations, the 5:5…

In recent years, a new additive manufacturing (AM) method for three-dimensional (3D) syringe-extrusion (bio)printing of soft hydrogels has been introduced under the name of Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH). The most common FRESH bath contains gelatin as the main compound and low concentrations of crosslinker(s) (whose nature depends on the hydrogel) for the initiation of an in-situ pre-crosslinking process during printing. In the case of sodium alginate (SA)-based hydrogels ionically crosslinked via calcium chloride (CaCl2), the crosslinker percentage in the gelatin bath is equal to ~10 mM, usually combined with a post-crosslinking at higher concentrations. However, according to the…

Combined photothermal-hygroscopic effects enable novel materials actuation strategies based on renewable and sustainable energy sources such as sunlight. Plasmonic nanoparticles have gained considerable interest as photothermal agents, however, the employment in sunlight-driven photothermal-hygroscopic actuators is still bounded, mainly due to the limited absorbance once integrated into nanocomposite actuators and the restricted plasmonic peaks amplitude (compared to the solar spectrum). Herein, the design and fabrication of an AgNPs-based plasmonic photothermal-hygroscopic actuator integrated with printed cellulose tracks are reported (bioinspired to Geraniaceae seeds structures). The nanocomposite is actuated by sunlight power density (i.e., 1 Sun = 100 mW cm−2). The plasmonic AgNPs…

Polysaccharide based hydrogels have been predominantly utilized as ink materials for 3D bioprinting due to biocompatibility and cell responsive features. However, most hydrogels require extensive crosslinking due to poor mechanical properties leading to limited printability. To improve printability without using cytotoxic crosslinkers, thermoresponsive bioinks could be developed. Agarose is a thermoresponsive polysaccharide with upper critical solution temperature (UCST) for sol-gel transition at 35–37 °C. Therefore, we hypothesized that a triad of carboxymethyl cellulose(C)–agarose(A)–gelatin(G) could be a suitable thermoresponsive ink for printing since they undergo instantaneous gelation without any addition of crosslinkers after bioprinting. The blend of agarose-carboxymethyl cellulose was mixed with…

Tissue engineering offers a great potential in regenerative dentistry and to this end, three dimensional (3D) bioprinting has been emerging nowadays to enable the incorporation of living cells into the biomaterials (such a mixture is referred as a bioink in the literature) to create scaffolds. However, the bioinks available for scaffold bioprinting are limited, particularly for dental tissue engineering, due to the complicated, yet compromised, printability, mechanical and biological properties simultaneously imposed on the bioinks. This paper presents our study on the development of a novel bioink from carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) and alginate (Alg) for bioprinting scaffolds for enamel tissue…

Presented here is the synthesis of a 3D printable nano-polysaccharide self-healing hydrogel for flexible strain sensors. Consisting of three distinct yet complementary dynamic bonds, the crosslinked network comprises imine, hydrogen, and catecholato-metal coordination bonds. Self-healing of the hydrogel is demonstrated by macroscopic observation, rheological recovery, and compression measurements. The hydrogel was produced via imine formation of carboxyl methyl chitosan, oxidized cellulose nanofibers, and chitin nanofibers followed by two subsequent crosslinking stages: immersion in tannic acid (TA) solution to create hydrogen bonds, followed by soaking in FeIII solution to form catecholato-metal coordination bonds between TA and FeIII. The metal coordination bonds…

The cultured meat is the solution to reduce resources using in a traditional meat production. It helps produce meat without killing livestock and decrease residue products. The method could also integrate with scaffold’s material which does not derive from animal products. This study aims to investigate the effects of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and apple powder on printability and cytotoxicity as additives in alginate/agarose-based hydrogel. 3D structures of them were printed to find a proper printing condition. From our experiments, the structure could maintain their shapes and uniform line sizes for carboxylmethyl cellulose, but not for apple powder at the 2%…

3D printing has become a promising and revolutionary pill-making technique for the pharmaceutical industry, enabling a relatively low-cost personalized medicine. Fused deposition modelling, also known by its initials FDM, is the most affordable technology for this goal, printing the material by a layer-by-layer deposition. However, the pressure assisted microsyringe technique is more adequate for working with drug containing inks as it does not need high temperatures, preventing the drug degradation. However, to make this goal possible, high accuracy and reproducibility is required, avoiding trial and error procedures. Thus, a correlation between rheology, printing parameters and the printed object was investigated.…

Beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP)-based bioinks were developed to support direct-ink 3D printing-based manufacturing of macroporous scaffolds. Binding of the gelatin:β-TCP ink compositions was optimized by adding carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) to maximize the β-TCP content while maintaining printability. Post-sintering, the gelatin:β-TCP:CMC inks resulted in uniform grain size, uniform shrinkage of the printed structure, and included microporosity within the ceramic. The mechanical properties of the inks improved with increasing β-TCP content. The gelatin:β-TCP:CMC ink (25:75 gelatin:β-TCP and 3% CMC) optimized for mechanical strength was used to 3D print several architectures of macroporous scaffolds by varying the print nozzle tip diameter and pore spacing during…

Here, we report a newly designed knee plug to be used in the 3rd generation of Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI) in order to heal the damaged knee cartilage. It is composed of three components: The first component (Bone Portion) is a 3D printed hard scaffold with large pores (~ 850 µm), made by hydroxyapatite and β-tricalcium phosphate to accommodate the bony parts underneath the knee cartilage. It is a cylinder with a diameter of 20 mm and height of 7.5 mm, with a slight dome shape on top. The plug also comprises a Cartilage Portion (component 2) which is a 3D…

Improving bone regeneration is one of the most pressing problems facing bone tissue engineering (BTE) which can be tackled by incorporating different biomaterials into the fabrication of the scaffolds. The present study aims to apply the 3D-printing and freeze-drying methods to design an ideal scaffold for improving the osteogenic capacity of Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs). To achieve this purpose, hybrid constructs consisted of 3D-printed Beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP)-based scaffolds filled with freeze-dried gelatin/reduced graphene oxide-Magnesium-Arginine (GRMA) matrix were fabricated through a novel green method. The effect of different concentrations of Reduced graphene oxide-Magnesium-Arginine (RMA) (0, 0.25% and 0.75%wt) on the…

This paper introduces a kit of parts as a novel three‐dimensional (3D)–printed joint plug, in which each of the parts function cooperatively to treat cartilage damage in joints of the human body (e.g., hips, wrists, elbow, knee, and ankle). Three required and one optional parts are involved in this plug. The first part is a 3D‐printed hard scaffold (bone portion) to accommodate bone cells, and the second is a 3D‐printed soft scaffold (cartilage portion) overlying the bone portion to accommodate chondrocytes. The third part of joint plug is a permeable membrane, termed film, to cover the entire plug to provide…

The ability to create 3D tissues from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is poised to revolutionize stem cell research and regenerative medicine, including individualized, patient-specific stem cell-based treatments. There are, however, few examples of tissue engineering using iPSCs. Their culture and differentiation is predominantly planar for monolayer cell support or induction of self-organizing embryoids (EBs) and organoids. Bioprinting iPSCs with advanced biomaterials promises to augment efforts to develop 3D tissues, ideally comprising direct-write printing of cells for encapsulation, proliferation, and differentiation. Here, such a method, employing a clinically amenable polysaccharide-based bioink, is described as the first example of bioprinting human…