Development of Electro-Conductive Composite Bioinks for Electrohydrodynamic Bioprinting with Microscale Resolution

Area of Science:

• Tissue Engineering
• Biomaterials Science
• Regenerative Medicine

Background:

• Bioprinting is crucial for creating biomimetic tissue constructs.
• Current bioinks lack electroconductivity, limiting the engineering of electroactive tissues.
• Limited printing resolution hinders the fabrication of complex tissue structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an electro-conductive bioink for high-resolution bioprinting.
• To engineer living tissue constructs with improved physical and structural properties.
• To advance the field of electroactive tissue engineering.

Main Methods:

• Preparation of an electro-conductive hydrogel by incorporating poly (3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene): poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) into an RGD-functionalized alginate and fibrin system (RAF).
• Electrohydrodynamic (EHD)-bioprinting of the developed bioink to create living tissue constructs.
• Optimization of printing parameters to achieve microscale resolution.

Main Results:

• The addition of 0.1% (w/v) PEDOT: PSS enhanced electroconductivity to 1.95 ± 0.21 S m^-1 with minimal impact on cell viability.
• EHD-bioprinting with the PEDOT: PSS-enhanced bioink achieved a minimum feature size of 48.91 ± 3.44 µm.
• The resulting electro-conductive constructs demonstrated good cell viability (>85%).

Conclusions:

• The combination of an electro-conductive hydrogel and EHD-bioprinting offers a promising strategy for engineering electroactive tissues.
• This approach overcomes limitations of current bioinks and printing techniques for electroactive tissue regeneration.
• The developed technology facilitates the creation of cell-laden, electro-conductive constructs for future therapeutic applications.