Investigation of novel carboxymethyl chitosan-based bioinks for 3D bioprinting of neural tissues.
Journal:
Biomedical materials (Bristol, England)
Published Date:
May 19, 2025
Abstract
The formulation of bioinks is critical for successful 3D bioprinting. It influences printability, stability, and cell behavior. This study focused on developing new bioinks using carboxymethyl chitosan (N,O-CMCS or O-CMCS), alginate, and fibrin, which are promising biomaterials due to their biocompatibility and similarities to the extracellular matrix, to 3D bioprint neural progenitor cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-NPC). The research successfully created a printable bioink with 1% N,O-CMCS, 1% alginate, and 20 mg/mL fibrin. This formulation exhibited uniform consistency and minimal extrusion force fluctuations (approximately 8 KPa), indicating homogeneity and optimal printability using an extrusion-based bioprinter. In contrast, higher concentrations of N,O-CMCS or alginate (3% w/v) resulted in increased viscosity and poorly defined scaffolds, and O-CMCS formulations did not support neural tissue differentiation. The bioink demonstrated significant water retention, swelling up to 15 times its original weight without losing structural integrity, thus providing a conducive environment for cell culture. Live/dead staining revealed over 60% cell viability over 30 days, underscoring its suitability for long-term cell applications. Immunocytochemistry confirmed that the N,O-CMCS-based bioink effectively guided cells toward differentiation into neurons and astrocytes. These findings suggest that the physiochemical interactions between bioink components affect its biological response regarding cell viability and differentiation, and the optimized bioink formulation is valuable for 3D printing neural tissue models, with potential applications in tissue engineering and drug screening.
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