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RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Harnessing decellularised extracellular matrix microgels into modular bioinks for extrusion-based bioprinting with good printability and high post-printing cell viability

Hanyu Chu1 ,  Kexin Zhang2 ,  Zilong Rao2 ,  Panpan Song2 ,  Zudong Lin1 ,  Jing Zhou2 ,  Liqun Yang1 ,  Daping Quan1,2* ,  Ying Bai2*
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1 Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite & Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
2 Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Centre for Functional Biomaterials, Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite & Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
BMT 2023 , 4(2), 115–127; https://doi.org/10.12336/biomatertransl.2023.02.006
Submitted: 4 June 2023 | Revised: 15 June 2023 | Accepted: 20 June 2023 | Published: 28 June 2023
Copyright © 2023 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 License.
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Abstract

The printability of bioink and post-printing cell viability is crucial for extrusion-based bioprinting. A proper bioink not only provides mechanical support for structural fidelity, but also serves as suitable three-dimensional (3D) microenvironment for cell encapsulation and protection. In this study, a hydrogel-based composite bioink was developed consisting of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) as the continuous phase and decellularised extracellular matrix microgels (DMs) as the discrete phase. A flow-focusing microfluidic system was employed for the fabrication of cell-laden DMs in a high-throughput manner. After gentle mixing of the DMs and GelMA, both rheological characterisations and 3D printing tests showed that the resulting DM-GelMA hydrogel preserved the shear-thinning nature, mechanical properties, and good printability from GelMA. The integration of DMs not only provided an extracellular matrix-like microenvironment for cell encapsulation, but also considerable shear-resistance for high post-printing cell viability. The DM sizes and inner diameters of the 3D printer needles were correlated and optimised for nozzle-based extrusion. Furthermore, a proof-of-concept bioink composedg of RSC96 Schwann cells encapsulated DMs and human umbilical vein endothelial cell-laden GelMA was successfully bioprinted into 3D constructs, resulting in a modular co-culture system with distinct cells/materials distribution. Overall, the modular DM-GelMA bioink provides a springboard for future precision biofabrication and will serve in numerous biomedical applications such as tissue engineering and drug screening.

Keywords
3D bioprinting ; bioinks ; cell viability ; decellularised extracellular matrix ; microgels
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Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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