3D Bioplotter Research Papers

Organ-on-a-chip stands as a pivotal platform for skeletal muscle research while constructing 3D skeletal muscle tissues that possess both macroscopic and microscopic structures remains a considerable challenge. This study draws inspiration from LEGO-like assembly, employing a modular approach to construct muscle tissue that integrates biomimetic macroscopic and microscopic structures. Modular LEGO-like hybrid nanofibrous scaffold bricks were fabricated by the combination of 3D printing and electrospinning techniques. Skeletal muscle cells cultured on these modular scaffold bricks exhibited a highly orientated nanofibrous structure. A variety of construction of skeletal muscle tissues further enabled development by various assembling processes. Moreover, skeletal muscle-on-a-chip (SMoC)…

Thermosensitive inks are considered an attractive option for the 3D bioprinting of different tissue types, yet comprehensive information on their reliability, preparation, and properties remains lacking. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a twofold aim: firstly, characterizing the preparation, rheology, and printing aspects of two inks that have demonstrated success in skeletal muscle tissue engineering both in vitro and in vivo. The first ink is composed of fibrinogen, gelatin, hyaluronic acid, and glycerol, while the second is a sacrificial ink made of gelatin, hyaluronic acid, and glycerol. Secondly, from this analysis, we demonstrate how thermosensitive and multicomponent inks can…

The 3D bioprinting of complex structures has attracted particular attention in recent years and has been explored in several fields, including dentistry, pharmaceutical technology, medical devices, and tissue/organ engineering. However, it still possesses major challenges, such as decreased cell viability due to the prolongation of the printing time, along with difficulties in preserving the print shape. The 4D bioprinting approach, which is based on controlled shape transformation upon stimulation after 3D bioprinting, is a promising innovative method to overcome these difficulties. Herein, the generation of skeletal muscle tissue-like complex structures is demonstrated by 3D bioprinting of GelMA-based C2C12 mouse myoblast-laden…

3D Bioprinting plays an irreplaceable role in bone tissue engineering. Shellac and curcumin are two natural compounds that are widely used in the food and pharmaceutical sectors. In this study, a new composite scaffold with good biocompatibility and antibacterial ability was manufactured by adding shellac and curcumin into the traditional bone scaffold through low-temperature three-dimensional printing (LT-3DP), and its impact on the osteoimmune microenvironment was evaluated.

Skeletal muscle is an electrically and mechanically active tissue that contains highly oriented, densely packed myofibrils. The tissue has self-regeneration capacity upon injury, which is limited in the cases of volumetric muscle loss. Several regenerative therapies have been developed in order to enhance this capacity, as well as to structurally and mechanically support the defect site during regeneration. Among them, biomimetic approaches that recapitulate the native microenvironment of the tissue in terms of parallel-aligned structure and biophysical signals were shown to be effective. In this study, we have developed 3D printed aligned and electrically active scaffolds in which the electrical…

When a biomaterial solution containing living cells is subject to bioprinting, the cells experience process-induced stresses, including shear and extensional stresses. These process-induced stresses breach cell membranes and can lead to cell damage, thus reducing cell viability and functioning within the printed constructs. Studies have been conducted to determine the influence of shear stress on cell damage; however, the effect of extensional stress has been typically ignored in the literature until the recently collected evidence of its importance. This paper presents a novel method to characterize and quantify the cell damage caused by both shear and extensional stresses in bioprinting.…

Advancements in additive manufacturing have made it possible to fabricate biologically relevant architectures from a wide variety of materials. Hydrogels have garnered increased attention for the fabrication of muscle tissue engineering constructs due to their resemblance to living tissue and ability to function as cell carriers. However, there is a lack of systematic approaches to screen bioinks based on their inherent properties, such as rheology, printability and cell viability. Furthermore, this study takes the critical first-step for connecting in-process sensor data with construct quality by studying the influence of printing parameters. Alginate-chitosan hydrogels were synthesized and subjected to a systematic…

Purpose Hydrogels with low viscosities tend to be difficult to use in constructing tissue engineering (TE) scaffolds used to replace or restore damaged tissue, due to the length of time it takes for final gelation to take place resulting in the scaffolds collapsing due to their mechanical instability. However, recent advances in rapid prototyping have allowed for a new technology called bioplotting to be developed, which aims to circumvent these inherent problems. This paper aims to present details of the process. Design/methodology/approach The paper demonstrates how by using the bioplotting technique complex 3D geometrical scaffolds with accurate feature sizes and…

The construction of biomaterial scaffolds for cell seeding is now seen as the most common approach for producing artificial tissue as compared with cell self-assembly and Acellular matrix techniques. This paper describes the use of synthetic and natural polymeric material shaped into 3D biological matrices by using Rapid Prototyping (RP) technology. Recent advances in RP technology have greatly enhanced the range of biomaterials that can now be constructed into scaffolds, also allowing for maximized control of the pore size and architecture. Bioplotting is one such method which allows the dispensing of various biomaterials into a media bath which has similar…