Cell-laden structures are widely applied for a variety of tissue engineering applications, including tissue restoration. Cell-to-cell interactions in bioprinted structures are important for successful tissue restoration, because cell-cell signaling pathways can regulate tissue development and stem cell fate. However, the low degree of cell-cell interaction in conventional cell-laden bioprinted structures is challenging for the therapeutic application of this modality. Herein, a microfluidic device with cell-laden methacrylated gelatin (GelMa) bioink and alginate as a matrix hydrogel is used to fabricate a functional hybrid structure laden with cell-aggregated microbeads. This approach effectively increases the degree of cell-to-cell interaction to a level comparable to cell spheroids. The hybrid structure is obtained using a one-step process without the exhausting procedure. It consists of cell bead fabrication and an extrusion process for the cell-bead laden structure. Different flow rates are appropriately selected to develop cell-laden struts with homogeneously distributed cell beads for each hydrogel in the process. The hybrid struts exhibit significantly higher cellular activities than those of conventional alginate/GelMa struts, which are bioprinted using similar cell densities and bioink formulations. Furthermore, hybrid struts with adipose stem cells are implanted into mice, resulting in significantly higher myogenesis in comparison to normally bioprinted struts.
Keywords: GelMa; alginate; cell-laden strut; microfluidics; muscle; tissue engineering.
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