The introduction of the 3d printing in bioapplication is progressing fast due to its unique advantages. 3D bioprinting could be used in a wide range of medical applications such as tissue engineering, organs printing, cell-based sensors, surgical and diagnostics aid, and manufacturing of medically related products. Hydrogels have been used as bioinks due to their high biocompatibility, low toxicity and their high water content making them similar to the extracellular matrix. Common hydrogels consist of different kinds of natural polymers, like alginate. For printing application, these materials should have enough viscosity and shear thinning behavior. Moreover, they should be able to crosslink with UV, heat or ionic crosslinking. For increasing the structural fidelity of the hydrogels, another material should be added to them. Cellulose is one of the attractive materials for mixing with hydrogel due to their high hydrophilicity, biocompatibility and mechanical properties coming from their high surface area. Because of these properties, hydrogel with alginate and cellulose are the good candidate for using them in 3D bioprinting. In this research, ultraviolet assisted direct ink writing technology was used, and three different systems were synthesized. Systems with hydrogels have high biocompatibility and show good enough structural fidelity. Rheological results show good enough viscosity and shear thinning behavior of the hydrogel inks. Moreover, the printed models have good structural fidelity without any expansion.  Therefore, they are good candidates in tissue engineering application.<br/>Orthodontic application, printing organ models and surgical aids are other applications of 3D printing in biotechnology. For this application, photocurable polymers with higher thermomechanical properties and photocurable ability could be used for printing patient-specific models of different organs. In this research, systems with photocurable polymers were synthesized and they show proper viscosity and shear thinning behavior as well. The printed model with these inks shows high structural fidelity without any considerable shrinkage in the structure.  DSC data shows good thermomechanical properties for this system, which makes them good candidates for surgical aid applications. The goal of this research is producing hydrogels and photocurable systems which could be used in different biomedical applications.<br/>

3D bioprinting inks for ultraviolet-assisted direct ink writing technology

2019 Spring National Meeting

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