3D cell printing of direct perfusable blood vessels fabrication in large volume bioengineered tissue

Abstract

In order to fabricate a large-volume bioengineered tissue, building vasculature is the most important part. Because the large thickness would confine the diffusion of oxygen and nutrition into such a volumetric construct. In recent, sacrificial hydrogels such as gelatin and pluronic F127 are widely used to build vasculature in thick bioengineered tissue. Additionally, endothelial cell seeding has been used to mimic natural blood vessel structure after sacrificial hydrogel was removed, this method is time-consuming and requests specific chamber and perfusion system. Thus, we made a gelatin based bio-ink for encapsulating endothelial cells and printed it within collagen hydrogel matrix. The fabrication was followed by removing only sacrificial bio-ink except endothelial cells. Finally, endothelial cells adhered to luminal side of collagen hydrogel matrix. This introduced method is simpler and faster than cell seeding technology. Furthermore, since 3D cell printing technique was applied, this method allows us to fabricate various shapes of vasculature and control the location of vasculature.