Human endothelial cells form an endothelium in freestanding collagen hollow filaments fabricated by direct extrusion printing

Ina Prade; Michaela Schröpfer; Caroline Seidel; Claudia Krumbiegel; Tina Hille; Frank Sonntag; Stephen Behrens; Florian Schmieder; Birgit Voigt; Michael Meyer

doi:10.1016/j.bbiosy.2022.100067

Human endothelial cells form an endothelium in freestanding collagen hollow filaments fabricated by direct extrusion printing

Biomater Biosyst. 2022 Oct 9:8:100067. doi: 10.1016/j.bbiosy.2022.100067. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Affiliations

¹ FILK Freiberg Institute, Meissner Ring 1-5, 09599 Freiberg, Germany.
² Fraunhofer Institute of Materials and Beam Technology IWS, Winterbergstr. 28, 01277 Dresden, Germany.

Abstract

Fiber-shaped materials have great potential for tissue engineering applications as they provide structural support and spatial patterns within a three-dimensional construct. Here we demonstrate the fabrication of mechanically stable, meter-long collagen hollow filaments by a direct extrusion printing process. The fibres are permeable for oxygen and proteins and allow cultivation of primary human endothelial cells (ECs) at the inner surface under perfused conditions. The cells show typical characteristics of a well-organized EC lining including VE-cadherin expression, cellular response to flow and ECM production. The results demonstrate that the collagen tubes are capable of creating robust soft tissue filaments. The mechanical properties and the biofunctionality of these collagen hollow filaments facilitate the engineering of prevascularised tissue engineering constructs.