Cell and gene therapies are promising in the field of personalized medicine. To successfully make the transition from research and development to clinical application, reliable production of cell products is a basic prerequisite. A reproducible manufacturing process can be realized via 3D bioprinting which allows the additional manufacturing of hydrogels containing biomolecules with spatial control. In extrusion-based 3D bioprinting, hydrogels are used as matrix structures into which the cells are mixed. As Process Analytical Technology (PAT) image processing is a powerful tool to characterize printed scaffolds in a non-invasive, time- and cost-saving manner. The images are long time stored and online-monitoring can be used for process control. An automated and standardized evaluation method that does not depend on an operator increases process reliability and should first be tested on simple structures, since all complex objects are a combination of these.<br/> <br/>The aim of this study is to introduce an automated line analysis tool which allows an easy characterization of 3D-printed lines. The lines are evaluated in terms of length, width, and area. It turned out that transparent materials pose a great challenge because reflections occur during the imaging process. The developed method was applied to explore the shrinkage behavior of two commercially available hydrogel formulations which are intended to be used as matrix for cells or cell products. These are Biogelx™-INK-RGD by Biogelx and Cellink® Bioink by Cellink. With the line analysis tool, it was possible to demonstrate shrinkage behavior for both hydrogels and thus to identify the process time as a critical process parameter.

Automated image processing as PAT-tool for manufacturing control of extrusion-based 3D printed cell products

ACS Spring 2022

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