Screen Printing Tissue Models Using Chemically Cross-Linked Hydrogel Systems: A Simple Approach To Efficiently Make Highly Tunable Matrices

Date

2021-10-22

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Pandala, Narendra et al.; Screen Printing Tissue Models Using Chemically Cross-Linked Hydrogel Systems: A Simple Approach To Efficiently Make Highly Tunable Matrices; ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 7, 11, 5007–5013, 22 October, 2021; https://doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00902

Rights

This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
This document is the unedited Author’s version of a Submitted Work that was subsequently accepted for publication in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00902.

Subjects

Abstract

In vitro models provide a good starting point for drug screening and understanding various cellular mechanisms corresponding to different conditions. 3D cultures have drawn significant interest to mimic the in vivo microenvironment better and overcome the limitations of the 2D monolayered cultures. We previously reported a technique based on the screen printing process to pattern live mammalian cells using gelatin as the bioink. Even though gelatin is an inexpensive scaffolding material with various tissue engineering applications, it might not be the ideal hydrogel material to provide various mechanical and chemical cues to the cells. In this paper, we discuss the synthesis and characterization of two synthetic chemically cross-linked hydrogel systems based on poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and poly-l-lysine (PLL) to be used as the bioink in the screen printing process. These hydrogels are suitable as the bioinks for the screen printing process and serve as the barebone materials that can be tuned mechanically and augmented chemically to create a suitable in vitro microenvironment for the cells. This paper presents the synthesis, mechanical testing, and characterization of the hydrogel systems and their applications in the screen printing process.