AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/ijb.5678
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Early Access

Sericin improves alginate-gelatin hydrogels’ mechanical properties, porosity, durability and viability of fibroblast in cardiac spheroids

Martine Tarsitano1,2 Clara Liu Chung Ming1,3 Dana Idais1,3 Hadi Mahmodi4 Kaitlin Wyllie5,6 Benedetta Isella7 Thomas R. Cox5,6 Irina Kabakova4 Donatella Paolino2,8 Carmine Gentile1,3*
Show Less
1 Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
2 Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University “Magna Graecia” of Catanzaro, Catanzaro 88100, Italy
3 Heart Research Institute, Newtown, Sydney, NSW 2042, Australia
4 School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007
5 The Garvan Institute of Medical Research and The Kinghorn Cancer Centre, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia
6 School of Clinical Medicine, St Vincent’s Healthcare Clinical Campus, UNSW Medicine and Health, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
7 Fibrothelium GmbH, Philipsstraße 8, 52068 Aachen, Germany
8 Research Center “ProHealth Translational Hub”, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, “Magna Graecia” University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro 88100, Italy
Submitted: 29 October 2024 | Accepted: 26 November 2024 | Published: 27 November 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Bioprinting DownUnder: Innovation, Advancements and Perspectives)
© 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/ )
Abstract

Biofabrication of cardiac patches is a challenging strategy proposed as an alternative to transplantation for end-stage heart failure patients. The optimization of the bioink used for this aim can be limited by costs, properties and biocompatibility of its building blocks. Lately, sericin has emerged within a wide range of natural proteins thanks to its bioadhesive and biocompatibility potential. In this study, we assessed for the first time the effects of adding silk sericin on alginate-gelatin hydrogels, proposed for cardiac applications. To this aim, we first biofabricated sericin-containing hydrogels with increasing protein concentrations. Thus, we characterized hydrogels’ mechanical behaviour, porosity and structure through rheology, Brillouin microspectroscopy and SEM. Then, we bioprinted the formulated hydrogels and evaluated their effects on human cardiac spheroids (CSs) in vitro. Our mechanical characterisation demonstrated that adding sericin significantly enhanced the elasticity and the viscosity of alginate-gelatin hydrogels. Sericin also modified hydrogels’ swelling behaviour and their pore size, increasing by 20%, 62%, and 92% in Ser1%, Ser2% and Ser3%, respectively. Although Ser1% did not exhibit significant effects on CSs, Ser2% and Ser3% enhanced cardiac cell viability for up to 14 days compared to the sericin-free hydrogel by acting on the fibroblast population. Sericin-based bioinks showed better printability and durability with +33% and +28% intact patches after 28 days of culture at 37°C compared to alginate-gelatin. Altogether our results validated the use of sericin as a promising component for the optimization of bioink intended for cardiac applications.

Keywords
Sericin
Hydrogels
Cardiac Spheroids
Myocardial Infarction
Biomaterials
Alginate
Gelatin
3D bioprinting
Funding
Dr Carmine Gentile was supported by a UTS Seed Funding, Heart Research Australia Grant, Perpetual IMPACT Grant, Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney Grant for Adult Stem Cell Research, and a Heart Research Institute Grant. Irina Kabakova and Hadi Mahmodi are supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Optical Microcombs for Breakthrough Science (CE230100006) and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology (CE230100021). Thomas R. Cox is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Kaitlin Wyllie is supported by the University Postgraduate Award (UPA) from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Donatella Paolino was supported by grants from the Italian Ministry of Health (PSC SALUTE 2014–2020-POS4 “Cal-Hub-Ria”-T4-AN-09), and PNRR MAD-2022-12376814).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
Share
Back to top
International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing