Cell-material interactions in 3D bioprinted plant cells

3D bioprinting is an additive manufacturing technology with promise towards facilitating tissue engineering and single-cell investigations of cellular development and microenvironment responses. 3D bioprinting is still a new technology in the field of plant biology so its optimization with plant cells is still widely needed. Here, we present a study in which 3D bioprinting parameters, such as needle gauge, extrusion pressure, and scaffold type, were all tested in 3D bioprinted Tobacco BY-2 cells to evaluate how cell viability is responsive to each parameter. As a result, this study revealed an optimal range of extrusion pressures and needle gauges that resulted in an optimum cell viability. Furthermore, this study applied the identified optimal 3D bioprinting parameters to a different cell line, Arabidopsis root protoplasts, and stress condition, phosphate starvation, to confirm that the identified parameters were optimal in a different species, cell type, and cellular microenvironment. This suggested that phosphate-starved bioprinted Arabidopsis cells were less viable by 7 days, which was consistent with whole root phosphate starvation responses. As a result, the 3D bioprinter optimization yielded optimal cell viabilities in both BY-2 and Arabidopsis cells and facilitated an applied investigation into phosphate starvation stress.