AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJB026260265
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Silk fibroin-reinforced bioink for high-fidelity 3D printing and tissue regeneration

Xinrang Zhai1,2 ,  Miner Hu3 ,  Yao Chen1 ,  Linran Song1 ,  Xihao Pan4 ,  Xianzhu Zhang5 ,  Wei Dong2* ,  Jianjun Ma1* ,  Wei Wei1,6*
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1 Department of Orthopedics, Center for Regenerative and Aging Medicine, International Institutes of Medicine, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, International School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Yiwu, Zhejiang, China
2 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
3 Department of Cardiology, Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Children and Adolescent’s Health and Diseases, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
4 Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
5 Department of Sports Medicine of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
6 Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Precision Diagnosis and Treatment for Lung Cancer, Yiwu, Zhejiang, China
IJB, 026260265 https://doi.org/10.36922/IJB026260265
Received: 14 April 2026 | Revised: 9 July 2026 | Accepted: 17 July 2026 | Published online: 17 July 2026
© 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/ )
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Abstract

Digital light processing (DLP) three-dimensional (3D) printing is an additive manufacturing technique that fabricates objects layer by layer using digitally projected light patterns. It effectively addresses the demand for complex geometries and is widely adopted in the biological field. However, traditional macromolecular bioinks still suffer from printing inaccuracies due to light scattering and runaway free-radical reactions. In this study, we introduced silk fibroin (SF) into the conventional poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA)/chitosan methacrylate (CSMA) bioink to enhance the precision of DLP 3D printing. The incorporation of SF achieved a significant improvement in mechanical property (alcohol-induced β-sheet formation increased the compressive modulus from 9.5 kPa to 208.1 kPa) and anti-swelling performance (volume swelling ratio from about 366.5% to 144.6%) of cell-free PEGDA/CSMA/SF hydrogel via alcohol treatment, meeting the enhanced mechanical requirements and addressing the commonly neglected issue of geometric deformation of 3D-printed hydrogels caused by swelling in moist environments. Ethanol treatment induced SF β-sheet structure formation and reduced PEGDA/CSMA/SF hydrogel pore size (from about 78.3 μm to 23.6 μm), thereby enhancing the hydrogel network crosslinking. The PEGDA/CSMA/SF bioink exhibited antibacterial potential, inhibiting Escherichia coli by about 41.3% and Staphylococcus aureus by about 45.8% within 12 h in vitro. The porous scaffolds were printed with a designed PEGDA/CSMA/SF bioink and effectively accelerated defect repair in rat full-thickness skin wound models (about 19.1% of the untreated control group). Histological analysis revealed that the PEGDA/CSMA/SF hydrogel scaffold promoted angiogenesis and collagen deposition, upregulated vascular endothelial growth factor A expression, and downregulated tumor necrosis factor-α expression. The straightforward approach of introducing SF into traditional bioinks represents a promising strategy for DLP 3D printing in tissue regeneration.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
3D printing
Silk fibroin
High precision
Anti-swelling
Wound repair
Funding
This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LZ25H060001).
Conflict of interest
Wei Wei is an Editorial Board Member of this journal, but was not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. The authors declare no competing interests.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing
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