AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJB026190172
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Engineering a biocompatible 3D model of the bone marrow niche for drug screening against KMT2A-rearranged acute myeloid leukaemia cell line MOLM-13

Lauren Hope1* Alvaro Sanchez-Rubio2 Catherine Berry2 Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez2,3,4 Mhairi Copland1 Helen Wheadon1
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1 Paul O’Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
2 Centre for the Cellular Microenvironment, School of Molecular Biosciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
3 Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain
4 Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
Received: 5 May 2026 | Revised: 16 June 2026 | Accepted: 25 June 2026 | Published online: 26 June 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioprinting in Tumor Modeling, Diagnostics, and Therapy)
© 2026 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

3D bioprinting technology has the potential to fabricate highly reproducible advanced biocompatible 3D in vitro models. It has been used successfully to emulate aspects of the bone marrow microenvironment to study leukaemia, including Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). AML is an aggressive haematological cancer which arises due to the accumulation of genetic mutations in haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) within the bone marrow, leading to production of Leukaemic Stem Cells (LSCs). Interactions between LSCs and bone marrow stroma induce LSC quiescence, protecting them from chemotherapy. In this study, we engineered a 3D-bioprinted co-culture bone marrow model containing MOLM-13 AML cells in co-culture with two main supportive cell types: bone marrow stroma (HS5) and osteoblast-like cells (CAL-72). This system was used to explore the efficacy of the Cyclin Dependent Kinase (CDK) 2/9 inhibitor fadraciclib alone and in combination with current AML therapies. Characterisation of Alginate/Gelatin hydrogels revealed a highly porous matrix structure, with a hydrogel stiffness within the range of human bone marrow. These hydrogels sustained MOLM-13 cells and HS5 spheroid viability for up to seven days, highlighting the suitability of this system to model bone marrow. Next, the efficacy of fadraciclib alone and in combination with current chemotherapies were assessed in 2D culture and in the final 3D bioprinted model. These data revealed that fadraciclib induced MOLM-13 cell death in both 2D and 3D culture, systems with a reduced level of cell death observed in 3D culture. Together, these data reveal a reproducible human bone marrow niche system, with potential for screening of novel single and combination therapies.

Keywords
3D bioprinting
Additive manufacturing
Bioengineering
Leukaemia
Bone marrow
Chemotherapy
Hydrogels
Spheroids
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing