Bacterial nanocellulos, BNC possesses significant advantages compared with plant derived nanofibrillated cellulose, such as being free of lignin and hemicelluloses, as well as being already FDA approved as a biomaterial in several applications. These features make BNC an attractive nanofiber to use as bioink in additive manufacturing in tissue engineering. However, the strong entanglements created during bacterial cellulose biosynthesis make difficult to use BNC as a bioink for 3D bioprinting applications. Such entanglements resist mechanical defibrillation and require use of strong acid hydrolysis in order to liberate the nanocellulose and make it flow through the 3D bioprinting nozzles. This research examines different conditions for hydrolysis of BNC and its use in 3D bioprinting. Also another technique for defibrillation of cellulose was evaluated, i.e. aqueous counter collision, which renders excellent BNC for use as bioink. Cultivation of fibroblasts was used to evaluate the BNC as potential scaffold for tissue engineering.

Bacterial nanocellulose based bioink for 3D bioprinting

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.