Preparation of Chitosan/Recombinant Human Collagen-Based Photo-Responsive Bioinks for 3D Bioprinting

• Published in: Gels Vol. 8; no. 5; p. 314
• Main Authors: Yang, Yang, Wang, Zixun, Xu, Yuanyuan, Xia, Jingjing, Xu, Zhaoxian, Zhu, Shuai, Jin, Mingjie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 19-05-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: 3-D printers; 3D printing; Acidification; Biocompatibility; Biodegradation; bioinks; Biomedical materials; Biotechnology; Chitosan; Collagen; Endothelial cells; Extrusion; Fourier transforms; Hemodialysis; Hydrochloric acid; In vitro methods and tests; Mechanical properties; Morphology; recombinant human collagen; Scanning electron microscopy; Three dimensional printing; Tissue engineering; Beijing China; China; bioinks; chitosan; tissue engineering; recombinant human collagen; 3D printing
• ISSN: 2310-2861; 2310-2861
• DOI: 10.3390/gels8050314

Collagen and chitosan are frequently used natural biomaterials in tissue engineering. However, most collagen is derived from animal tissue, with inconsistent quality and pathogen transmittance risks. In this context, we aimed to use a reliable Type-III recombinant human collagen (RHC) as an alternative biomaterial together with chitosan to develop novel photo-responsive bioinks for three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting. RHC was modified with methacrylic anhydride to obtain the RHC methacryloyl (RHCMA) and mixed with acidified chitosan (CS) to form composites CS-RHCMA. The characterizations demonstrated that the mechanical properties and the degradation of the bioinks were tunable by introducing the CS. The printabilities improved by adding CS to RHCMA, and various structures were constructed via extrusion-based 3D printing successfully. Moreover, in vitro tests confirmed that these CS-RHCMA bioinks were biocompatible as human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were sustained within the constructs post-printing. The results from the current study illustrated a well-established bioinks system with the potential to construct different tissues through 3D bioprinting.