AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/ijb.3520
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Development of embedded bioprinting for fabricating zonally stratified articular cartilage

Yang Wu1,2* ,  Xue Yang1 ,  Tianying Yuan3 ,  Seung Yeon Lee4 ,  Minghao Qin1 ,  Sung Jun Min4 ,  Bingxian Lu1 ,  Pengkun Guo1 ,  Jiarui Xie1 ,  Shengli Mi3,5* ,  Dong Nyoung Heo6,7*
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1 School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China
2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Intelligent Morphing Mechanisms and Adaptive Robotics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China
3 Biomanufacturing Engineering Laboratory, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, China
4 Department of Dentistry, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
5 Open FIESTA Center, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, China
6 Department of Dental Materials, School of Dentistry, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
7 Biofriends Inc., Seoul, Republic of Korea
IJB 2024, 10(4), 3520 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.3520
Submitted: 28 April 2024 | Accepted: 4 June 2024 | Published: 15 July 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D printing of bioinspired materials)
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Embedded bioprinting enables direct deposition of bioinks in three dimensions inside a support bath with shear-thinning and self-healing capabilities, and it has been used to fabricate complex tissues and organs for several biomedical applications. In this study, a support bath comprising gelatin/alginate microparticles and oxidized alginate solution was developed and crosslinked in situ with carbonyl hydrazide-modified gelatin bioink via the Schiff base reaction. The numerical model of embedded printing was established to analyze the extrusion process and disturbance of the support bath. The process window (e.g., extrusion pressure, nozzle moving speed, nozzle size, and support bath composition) was established experimentally to ensure stable fiber formation. In addition, the compressive modulus of the printed construct has been reinforced due to the formation of interpenetrating polymer networks in the microparticles. Based on the process investigation, a zonally stratified artificial cartilage with a three-layered structure was designed: vertically printed fibers in the bottom, oblique fibers in the middle, and horizontally printed fibers in the superficial layer. The bioprinted cartilage supported cell survival, proliferation, and spreading, with the observed deposition of cartilage-specific proteins, offering a new strategy for developing tissue-engineered cartilage constructs with biological and histological relevance.

Keywords
Embedded bioprinting
Printability
Zonally stratified cartilage
Schiff base
Interpenetrating polymer network
Funding
This work was funded by the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (grant number 2023A1515012439), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 52205305), and the Shenzhen Natural Science Foundation (the Stable Support Plan Program; grant number GXWD20231129125422001). This work was also supported by the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare (grant number HI22C1572).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing
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