Three-dimensional printing of chemically crosslinked gelatin hydrogels for adipose tissue engineering

Content Provider	Scilit
Author	Negrini, Nicola Contessi Celikkin, Nehar Tarsini, Paolo Farè, Silvia Święszkowski, Wojciech
Copyright Year	2019
Description	Journal: Biofabrication Despite the outstanding potential and success achieved in 3D printed hydrogel scaffolds, their application in regeneration of damaged or missing adipose tissue (AT) has yet been poorly investigated. Thanks to the desired macroscopic shape, microarchitecture, extracellular matrix mimicking structure, degradability and soft tissue biomimetic mechanical properties, 3D printed hydrogel scaffolds possess a great potential of simultaneously targeting aesthetic, structural and functional AT restoration. Here, we propose a simple and cost-effective 3D printing strategy of a gelatin-based ink to fabricate scaffolds suitable for AT engineering. The ink, successfully printed here for the first time, was prepared by mixing gelatin and methylenebisacrylamide (i.e., crosslinker) to initiate the crosslinking reaction. The solution was then loaded in the cartridge (temperature T = 35 °C) of a pneumatic extrusion-based 3D printer and printed on a cooled surface (T = 4 °C) in the appropriate ink printability time window verified by rheological tests. Subsequently, the printed gelatin hydrogels were crosslinked at different temperatures to optimize their stability and fix the printed structure. The gelatin scaffolds crosslinked at 20 °C remained stable for 21 days at physiological temperature, with compressive mechanical properties suitable to mimic those of AT (i.e., elastic modulus = 20 kPa). The 3D printed scaffolds showed no indirect cytotoxic effects for 3T3-L1 preadipocyte cells line. Moreover, the printed scaffolds successfully promoted primary human preadipocytes adhesion and proliferation, as demonstrated by LIVE/DEAD staining and Alamar Blue assay. Besides, the differentiation of primary human preadipocytes isolated from three different donors towards adipogenic phenotype was demonstrated by an increase in PPARγ gene expression detected by real time PCR and accumulated lipid droplets stained by Oil Red O, thus proving the potential of the 3D printed gelatin hydrogels as scaffolds for AT engineering.
Related Links	https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1758-5090/ab56f9/pdf
ISSN	17585082
e-ISSN	17585090
DOI	10.1088/1758-5090/ab56f9
Journal	Biofabrication
Issue Number	2
Volume Number	12
Language	English
Publisher	IOP Publishing
Publisher Date	2019-11-12
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Journal: Biofabrication Mechanical Properties Printed Gelatin Hydrogels
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Medicine Biomaterials Biochemistry Bioengineering Biomedical Engineering Biotechnology