Improving the printability of pure, decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) bio-ink without altering its physiological components has been a challenge in three-dimensional (3D) cell printing. To improve the printability of the bio-ink, we first investigated the digestion process of the powdered dECM material obtained from porcine tendons. We manifested the digestion process of tendon derived dECM powders, which includes dissolution, gelatinization and solubilization. After a short dissolution period (around 10 min), we observed a ‘High viscosity slurry’ status (3 h) of the dECM precursors, i.e. the gelatinization process, followed by the solubilization processes, i.e. a ‘Medium viscosity slurry’ period (12 h)…
Three-dimensional (3D) printing has enabled benchtop fabrication of customized bioengineered constructs with intricate architectures. Various approaches are being explored to enable optimum integration of such constructs into the physiological environment including addition of bioactive fillers. In this work, we incorporated a corticosteroid drug, dexamethasone (Dex), in a low modulus polyester (SC5050) and examined the effect of Dex incorporation on solvent-, initiator-, and monomer-free pneumatic extrusion-based 3D printing of the polymer. Dex–SC5050 interactions were characterized by plotting thermodynamic binary phase diagrams based on the Flory–Huggins theory. The effect of Dex composition on the 3D printability of the SC5050 polyester was examined…