Bioprinting has emerged as an advanced method for fabricating complex 3D tissues. Despite the tremendous potential of 3D bioprinting, there are several drawbacks of current bioinks and printing methodologies that limit the ability to print elastic and highly vascularized tissues. In particular, fabrication of complex biomimetic structure that are entirely based on 3D bioprinting is still challenging primarily due to the lack of suitable bioinks with high printability, biocompatibility, biomimicry, and proper mechanical properties. To address these shortcomings, in this work the use of recombinant human tropoelastin as a highly biocompatible and elastic bioink for 3D printing of complex soft tissues is demonstrated. As proof of the concept, vascularized cardiac constructs are bioprinted and their functions are assessed in vitro and in vivo. The printed constructs demonstrate endothelium barrier function and spontaneous beating of cardiac muscle cells, which are important functions of cardiac tissue in vivo. Furthermore, the printed construct elicits minimal inflammatory responses, and is shown to be efficiently biodegraded in vivo when implanted subcutaneously in rats. Taken together, these results demonstrate the potential of the elastic bioink for printing 3D functional cardiac tissues, which can eventually be used for cardiac tissue replacement.
3D bioprinting is an emerging additive manufacturing technique to fabricate constructs for human disease modeling. However, current cell‐laden bioinks lack sufficient biocompatibility, printability, and structural stability needed to translate this technology to preclinical and clinical trials. Here, a new class of nanoengineered hydrogel‐based cell‐laden bioinks is introduced, that can be printed into 3D, anatomically accurate, multicellular blood vessels to recapitulate both the physical and chemical microenvironments of native human vasculature. A remarkably unique characteristic of this bioink is that regardless of cell density, it demonstrates a high printability and ability to protect encapsulated cells against high shear forces in the bioprinting process. 3D bioprinted cells maintain a healthy phenotype and remain viable for nearly one‐month post‐fabrication. Leveraging these properties, the nanoengineered bioink is printed into 3D cylindrical blood vessels, consisting of living co‐culture of endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells, providing the opportunity to model vascular function and pathophysiology. Upon cytokine stimulation and blood perfusion, this 3D bioprinted vessel is able to recapitulate thromboinflammatory responses observed only in advanced in vitro preclinical models or in vivo. Therefore, this 3D bioprinted vessel provides a potential tool to understand vascular disease pathophysiology and assess therapeutics, toxins, or other chemicals.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10360032
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Healthcare Materials
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 21
- ISSN:
- 2192-2640
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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