Hydrogels are hydrophilic polymer networks with a high water content and are widely used in bioprinting applications. Non-crosslinked hydrogel precursor solutions, also called bioinks, often exhibit a very low viscosity making them unsuitable for 3D printing by robotic dispensing. This work shows an approach of using high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) to prepare bioinks with ideal rheological properties for robotic dispensing. HIPEs are emulsions composed of at least 74 % (v/v) of internal phase. Polymerizing the external phase of water-in-oil HIPEs generates a porous polymeric scaffold with interconnected voids (polyHIPE). By adding polymerizable monomers to the internal aqueous phase of HIPEs, composite hydrogels supported by a porous polyHIPE scaffold can be produced. Enzymes are added to the internal aqueous phase in order to examine the biocompatibility of such scaffold-supported hydrogels. The bioinks are printed using a customized cure-on-dispense setup and assessed using activity assays in a high-throughput approach.

Emulsion-based bioinks for 3D bioprinting of scaffold-supported composite hydrogels

2019 Spring National Meeting

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