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

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 322000, China
2 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210094, 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 310000, China
4 Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University, 1369 West Wenyi Road, Hangzhou 311121, China
5 Department of Sports Medicine of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310000, China
6 Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Precision Diagnosis and Treatment for Lung Cancer, Yiwu, Zhejiang 322000, China
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/ )
Abstract

Digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing is a technology for additive fabrication of objects layer by layer, guided by digital 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. Herein, we introduce silk fibroin (SF) into the conventional PEGDA/CSMA bioink to enhance the precision of DLP 3D printing. The incorporation of SF achieves 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 366.1% 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 induces SF β-sheet structure formation and reduces 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 possesses antibacterial potential, inhibiting E. coli by about 41.3% and S. aureus by about 45.8% within 12 h in vitro. The porous scaffolds are printed with a designed PEGDA/CSMA/SF bioink and effectively accelerate defect repair in rat full-thickness skin wound models (about 19.1% of the untreated control group). Histological analysis reveals that the PEGDA/CSMA/SF hydrogel scaffold promotes angiogenesis and collagen deposition, upregulates VEGFA expression, and downregulates TNF-α expression. The straightforward approach of introducing SF into traditional bioinks represents a promising strategy for DLP 3D printing in tissue regeneration.

Keywords
3D printing
Silk fibroin
High precision
Anti-swelling
Wound repair
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing