Bioprinting, a subset of additive manufacturing, is a constantly evolving technique in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. A key component of bioprinting is the material that are being printed; bioinks typically consist of a biocompatible polymer solution/gel that undergoes shear thinning. In our pursuit of multifunctional bioinks with tunable/switchable properties, our group focused on colloidal inks composed of ultra-low crosslinked microgels (ULCs). ULCs have emerged as an interesting new construct for bio-applications due to their excellent biocompatibility, tunable mechanical properties, and unusual physical behavior in confined/jammed colloidal phases. ULCs composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) were used to develop a new bioink with tunable erosion properties based solely on the degree of ULC jamming in the dispersion. Sacrificial and structural inks were created by simply changing the concentration of the ULC bioink, with higher concentrations resulting in thermoresponsive prints that persisted for many hours in buffer, and lower concentrations being erodible on the timescale of seconds. Additionally, the versatility of a colloidal bioink allows for mixing of functionalized particles, while retaining the main physical properties of the ULC bioink, thus creating a “plug-and-play” approach to ink functionality.

Ultra-Low Crosslinked Microgel Based Bioinks

ACS Spring 2022

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