Speaker
Description
Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting offers a great alternative to traditional manual techniques for tissue reconstruction in terms of time consumption and reproducibility. When suitable bioink is engineered with appropriate physico-chemical properties, such process can advantageously provide a spatial control of the patterning that improve tissue reconstruction. The design of an adequate bioink must fulfill a long list of criteria including biocompatibility, printability and stability. With the purpose to reconstruct a human skin dermal compartment, we have developed a bioink containing a precisely controlled recombinant biopolymer, namely elastin-like polypeptide (ELP). These materials provide a 3D network through photopolymerization. ELP chains were additionally either functionalized with a peptide sequence GRGDS (Gly-Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser) or combined with Collagen I to enable cell-adhesion. Our ELP-based bioinks were found to be printable in a short period of time, while providing excellent mechanical properties such as stiffness and elasticity in their cross-linked form. Besides, they were demonstrated to be biocompatible showing viability and adhesion of dermal normal human fibroblasts (NHF). Expressions of specific ECM protein dermal markers as Pro Collagen I, Elastin, Fibrillin and Fibronectin were revealed within our human dermal reconstructions, showing the great potential of ELP-based bioinks for skin tissue engineering.
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