Engineering a thixotropic and biochemically tunable hyaluronan and collagen bioink for biofabrication of multiple tissue construct types

Abstract

The field of three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting has advanced rapidly in recent years. Significant reduction in the costs associated with obtaining functional 3D bioprinting hardware platforms is both a cause and a result of these advances. As such, there are more laboratories than ever integrating bioprinting methodologies into their research. However, there is a lack of standards in the field of biofabrication governing any requirements or characteristics to support cross-compatibility with biomaterial bioinks, hardware, and different tissue types. Here we describe a modular extracellular matrix (ECM) inspired bioink comprised of collagen and hyaluronic acid base components that: 1) employ reversible internal hydrogen bonding forces to generate thixotropic materials that dynamically reduce their elastic moduli in response to increased shear stress, thus enabling increased compatibility with printing hardware; and 2) modular addons in the form of chemically-modified fibronectin and laminin that when covalently bound within the bioink support a variety of tissue types, including liver, neural, muscle, pancreatic islet, and adipose tissue. These features aim to accelerate the deployment of such bioinks for tissue engineering of functional constructs in the hands of various end users.