3D Bioplotter Research Papers
Development of a Nanohybrid Peptide Hydrogel for Enhanced Intervertebral Disc Repair and Regeneration
Effective therapeutic approaches to overcome the heterogeneous pro-inflammatory and inhibitory extracellular matrix (ECM) microenvironment are urgently needed to achieve robust structural and functional repair of severely wounded fibrocartilaginous tissues. Herein we developed a dynamic and multifunctional nanohybrid peptide hydrogel (NHPH) through hierarchical self-assembly of peptide amphiphile modified with biodegradable two-dimensional nanomaterials with enzyme-like functions. NHPH is not only injectable, biocompatible, and biodegradable but also therapeutic by catalyzing the scavenging of pro-inflammatory reactive oxygen species and promoting ECM remodeling. In addition, our NHPH method facilitated the structural and functional recovery of the intervertebral disc (IVD) after severe injuries by delivering pro-regenerative…
Engineering patient-specific bioprinted constructs for treatment of degenerated intervertebral disc
Lower back pain (LBP), which is strongly associated with intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration, is one of the most frequently reported age- and work-related disorder in actual society, leading to a huge socio-economic impact worldwide. The current treatments have poor clinical outcomes and do not consider each patient needs. Thus, there is a growing interest in the potential of personalized cell-based tissue engineering (TE) approaches aimed to regenerate the damaged IVD and efficiently restore full disc function. In this work, a bioink composed by silk fibroin (SF) hydrogel combined with elastin was used to bioprint patient-specific substitutes mimicking IVD ultrastructure, in…
3D segmentation of intervertebral discs: from concept to the fabrication of patient-specific scaffolds
Aim: To develop a methodology for producing patient-specific scaffolds that mimic the annulus fibrosus (AF) of the human intervertebral disc by means of combining MRI and 3D bioprinting. Methods: In order to obtain the AF 3D model from patient’s volumetric MRI dataset, the RheumaSCORE segmentation software was used. Polycaprolactone scaffolds with three different internal architectures were fabricated by 3D bioprinting, and characterized by microcomputed tomography. Results: The demonstrated methodology of a geometry reconstruction pipeline enabled us to successfully obtain an accurate AF model and 3D print patient-specific scaffolds with different internal architectures. Conclusion: The results guide us toward patient-specific intervertebral…