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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biofabrication
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1452477
This article is part of the Research Topic Advancing vascularized tissue models through biomaterials and biofabrication View all 4 articles

Small Molecular Weight Alginate Gel Porogen for the 3D Bioprinting of Microvasculature

Provisionally accepted
Florian Vanlauwe Florian Vanlauwe 1,2*Charlotte Dermaux Charlotte Dermaux 1Sabina Shamieva Sabina Shamieva 1Stef Vermeiren Stef Vermeiren 1Sandra Van Vlierberghe Sandra Van Vlierberghe 2Phillip Blondeel Phillip Blondeel 1
  • 1 Other, Ghent, Belgium
  • 2 Centre of Macromolecular Chemistry, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In order to recreate the complexity of human organs, the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine has been focusing on methods to build organs from the bottom up by assembling distinct small functional units consisting of a biomaterial and cells. This bottom-up engineering requires bioinks that can be assembled by 3D bioprinting and that permit fast vascularization of the construct to ensure survival of embedded cells. To this end, a small molecular weight alginate (SMWA) gel porogen is presented herein. Alginate is a biocompatible biomaterial, which can be easily converted into small porogen gels with the procedure reported in this article. The SMWA porogen is mixed with photo-crosslinkable hydrogels and leached from the hydrogel post-crosslinking to increase porosity and facilitate vascularization. As a proof of concept, this system is tested with the commonly used biomaterial Gelatin Methacryloyl (GelMA). The SMWA porogen-GelMA blend is proven to be bioprintable. Incubating the blend for 20 mins in a low concentration phosphate buffered saline and sodium citrate solution significantly reduces the remaining porogen in the hydrogel. The intent to always completely leach the porogen was abandoned, as longer incubation times and higher concentrations of phosphate and citrate were detrimental to endothelial proliferation. Nonetheless, even with remnants of the porogen left in the hydrogel, the created porosity significantly improves viability, growth factor signaling, vasculogenesis, and angiogenesis in 3D bioprinted structures. This article concludes that the usage of the SMWA porogen can improve the assembly of microvasculature in 3D bioprinted structures. This technology can benefit the bottom-up assembly of large scaffolds with high cell density through 3D bioprinting by improving cell viability and allowing faster vascularization.

    Keywords: Extrusion bioprinting, 3D microvascularization, Porogen, Angiogenesis, vasculogenesis, spheroid bioprinting, Gelatin Methacryloyl bioink, Scaffold

    Received: 21 Jun 2024; Accepted: 26 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Vanlauwe, Dermaux, Shamieva, Vermeiren, Van Vlierberghe and Blondeel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Florian Vanlauwe, Other, Ghent, Belgium

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.