Pre-set extrusion bioprinting for multiscale heterogeneous tissue structure fabrication

Biofabrication. 2018 Jun 6;10(3):035008. doi: 10.1088/1758-5090/aac70b.

Abstract

Recent advances in three-dimensional bioprinting technology have led to various attempts in fabricating human tissue-like structures. However, current bioprinting technologies have limitations for creating native tissue-like structures. To resolve these issues, we developed a new pre-set extrusion bioprinting technique that can create heterogeneous, multicellular, and multimaterial structures simultaneously. The key to this ability lies in the use of a precursor cartridge that can stably preserve a multimaterial with a pre-defined configuration that can be simply embedded in a syringe-based printer head. The multimaterial can be printed and miniaturized through a micro-nozzle without conspicuous deformation according to the pre-defined configuration of the precursor cartridge. Using this system, we fabricated heterogeneous tissue-like structures such as spinal cords, hepatic lobule, blood vessels, and capillaries. We further obtained a heterogeneous patterned model that embeds HepG2 cells with endothelial cells in a hepatic lobule-like structure. In comparison with homogeneous and heterogeneous cell printing, the heterogeneous patterned model showed a well-organized hepatic lobule structure and higher enzyme activity of CYP3A4. Therefore, this pre-set extrusion bioprinting method could be widely used in the fabrication of a variety of artificial and functional tissues or organs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bioprinting / methods*
  • Cell Survival / physiology
  • Endothelial Cells
  • Hep G2 Cells
  • Humans
  • Printing, Three-Dimensional*
  • Tissue Engineering / methods*
  • Tissue Scaffolds