Reinforcement of hydrogels using three-dimensionally printed microfibres

By J. Visser, F. Melchels, J. E. Jeon, E. V. van Bussel, L. Kimpton, H. Byrne, W. Dhert, P. Dalton, Dietmar Werner Hutmacher, Jos Malda. Nature Communications, 2015

646 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Despite intensive research, hydrogels currently available for tissue repair in the musculoskeletal system are unable to meet the mechanical, as well as the biological, requirements for successful outcomes. Here we reinforce soft hydrogels with highly organized, high-porosity microfibre networks that are 3D-printed with a technique termed as melt electrospinning writing. We show that the stiffness of the gel/scaffold composites increases synergistically (up to 54-fold), compared with hydrogels or microfibre scaffolds alone. Modelling affirms that reinforcement with defined microscale structures is applicable to numerous hydrogels. The stiffness and elasticity of the composites approach that of articular cartilage tissue. Human chondrocytes embedded in the composites are viable, retain their round morphology and are responsive to an in vitro physiological loading regime in terms of gene expression and matrix production. The current approach of reinforcing hydrogels with 3D-printed microfibres offers a fundament for producing tissue constructs with biological and mechanical compatibility. Hydrogels are commonly used materials for tissue engineering, but they can lack the structural properties required for load-bearing and mechanical applications. Here, the authors prepare a polycaprolactone scaffold using melt-electrospinning to reinforce a gelatin methacrylamide hydrogel.

Subfields: Biomaterials, Biomedical Engineering, Rheumatology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/390bda505e31aeb5c3fbf3a2eb26038cdae834a4

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Biomaterials

1. Ali Khademhosseini
2. N. Annabi
3. K. Yue
4. Ali Tamayol
5. F. Melchels
6. M. M. Álvarez
7. G. Santiago
8. Jos Malda

In Biomedical Engineering

1. Yu Shrike Zhang
2. N. Annabi
3. Ali Khademhosseini
4. Jos Malda
5. Ali Tamayol
6. K. Yue
7. F. Melchels
8. M. M. Álvarez

In Rheumatology

1. Jos Malda
2. F. Melchels

Citations in the corpus

• PCL and PCL-based materials in biomedical applications (2018, positive): “In vitro studies carried demonstrated that chondrocytes encapsulated in GelMA/PCL composites had significant changes in terms of cartilage gene expression and matrix formation [156].”
• Mechanical metamaterials associated with stiffness, rigidity and compressibility: a brief review (2017, methodology): “Melt-electrospinning is a direct writing mode [377], also considered by some to be a 3D printing method, which can be used to fabricate scaffold structures with honeycomb-like patterns for tissue engineering applications [378].”
• The Emerging Frontiers and Applications of High-Resolution 3D Printing (2017, methodology): “0 mm; (D) hydrogel without PCL scaffold; (E) hydrogel reinforced with a PCL scaffold; and (F) DAPI staining demonstrated the homogenous distribution of the cells throughout the construct; (A–F) are reprinted from [97] with permission of Nature Publishing Group, Copyright 2015.”
• Gelatin-Methacryloyl Hydrogels: Towards Biofabrication-Based Tissue Repair (2016, methodology): “Methacryloyl APS/TEMED >80% viability after 1 day (chondrocytes) [51]”
• Bioinks and bioprinting technologies to make heterogeneous and biomimetic tissue constructs (2019, background): “Although various approaches such as the use of reinforcing fibers [235,243] or particles [90,91,244] have been proposed to address this problem, the problem still remains unresolved to satisfactory level to have reliable.”
• Synthesis, properties, and biomedical applications of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogels (2015, background): “[103] Visser J, Melchels FPW, Jeon JE, van Bussel E M, Kimpton LS, Byrne HM, et al.”