3D Bioprinting of Macroporous Materials Based on Entangled Hydrogel Microstrands.

ABSTRACT: Hydrogels are excellent mimetics of mammalian extracellular matrices and have found widespread use in tissue engineering. Nanoporosity of monolithic bulk hydrogels, however, limits mass transport of key biomolecules. Microgels used in 3D bioprinting achieve both custom shape and vastly improved permissivity to an array of cell functions, however spherical-microbead-based bioinks are challenging to upscale, are inherently isotropic, and require secondary crosslinking. Here, bioinks based on high-aspect-ratio hydrogel microstrands are introduced to overcome these limitations. Pre-crosslinked, bulk hydrogels are deconstructed into microstrands by sizing through a grid with apertures of 40-100 µm. The microstrands are moldable and form a porous, entangled structure, stable in aqueous medium wi

SUBMITTER: Kessel B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7509724 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature