Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (ADMSC) are one of the major stromal cells in the breast cancer microenvironment that promote cancer progression. Previous studies on the effects of ADMSC on breast cancer metastasis and drug resistance, using two-dimensional (2D) cultures, remained inconclusive. In the present study, we compared cocultured ADMSC and human epidermal receptor 2 positive breast primary breast cancer cells (21PT) in 2D and three-dimensional (3D) cultures and then examined their response to doxorubicin (DOX). We examined 3D bioprinted constructs with breast cancer cells in the middle and ADMSC in the edge region, which were made by using dual hydrogel-based…
Advancements in additive manufacturing have made it possible to fabricate biologically relevant architectures from a wide variety of materials. Hydrogels have garnered increased attention for the fabrication of muscle tissue engineering constructs due to their resemblance to living tissue and ability to function as cell carriers. However, there is a lack of systematic approaches to screen bioinks based on their inherent properties, such as rheology, printability and cell viability. Furthermore, this study takes the critical first-step for connecting in-process sensor data with construct quality by studying the influence of printing parameters. Alginate-chitosan hydrogels were synthesized and subjected to a systematic…
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a name of a group of technologies that build 3D objects by adding layer-upon-layer of material. There are many technologies, including Rapid Prototyping (RP), Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM), layered manufacturing and additive fabrication. Many types of materials can be used for AM technology. Biodegradable polymers such as polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), are currently the subject of intensive research in the field of additive manufacturing and regenerative medicine. A number of biodegradable and bioresorbable materials, as well as scaffold designs, have been experimentally and clinically studied in many research facilities around the world. For effective…
The pursuit for the “perfect” biomimetic and personalized implant for musculoskeletal tissue regeneration remains a big challenge. 3D printing technology that makes use of a novel and promising biomaterials can be part of the solution. In this study, a fast setting enzymatic-crosslinked silk fibroin (SF) bioink for 3D bioprinting is developed. Their properties are fine-tuned and different structures with good resolution, reproducibility, and reliability can be fabricated. Many potential applications exist for the SF bioinks including 3D bioprinted scaffolds and patient-specific implants exhibiting unique characteristics such as good mechanical properties, memory-shape feature, suitable degradation, and tunable pore architecture and morphology.
The development of in situ fabrication methods for the infrastructure required to support human life on the Moon is necessary due to the prohibitive cost of transporting large quantities of materials from the Earth. Cellular structures, consisting of a regular network (truss) of micro-struts with ∼500 μm diameters, suitable for bricks, blocks, panels, and other load-bearing structural elements for habitats and other infrastructure are created by direct-extrusion 3D-printing of liquid inks containing JSC-1A lunar regolith simulant powders, followed by sintering. The effects of sintering time, temperature, and atmosphere (air or hydrogen) on the microstructures, mechanical properties, and magnetic properties of…
Reconfigured flexible filaments exposed to steady fluid load were investigated using a novel non-contact optical technique to measure the normal fluid force due to the fluid loading on inclined cylinders for Reynolds numbers from 25 to 460: a range not covered in previous studies that is of relevance in drag reduction and energy harvesting applications. The ranges of the buoyancy number and the Cauchy number covered in the tests were 3.6 × 10^4 ≤ B ≤ 2.1 × 10^6 and 7.6 × 10^4 ≤ Ca ≤ 1.4 × 10^7. These newly generated data were then used to assess and extend…
Three-dimensional (3D) printing is an emerging technology for the fabrication of scaffolds to repair/replace damaged tissue/organs in tissue engineering. This paper presents our study on 3D printed alginate scaffolds treated with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and polyethyleneimine (PEI) coating and their impacts on the surface morphology and cellular response of the printed scaffolds. In our study, sterile alginate was prepared by means of the freeze-drying method and then, used to prepare the hydrogel for 3D printing into calcium chloride, forming 3D scaffolds. Scaffolds were treated with PBS for a time period of two days and seven days, respectively, and PEI…
Ni-Mn-Ga magnetic shape memory alloy (SMA) micro-trusses, suitable for high magnetic field induced strains and/or a large magnetocaloric effect, are created via a new additive manufacturing method combining (i) 3D-printing ∼400 μm struts with an ink containing a polymer binder and elemental Ni, Mn, and Ga powders, (ii) binder burn-out and metallic powder interdiffusion and homogenization to create the final alloy, and (iii) further sintering to increase strut density. Controlled amounts of hierarchical porosity, desirable to enable twinning in this polycrystalline alloy, are achieved: (i) continuous ∼450 μm channels between the printed Ni-Mn-Ga ∼300 μm diameter struts (after sintering) and…
Here we describe the formulation of a morphogenetically active bio-ink consisting of amorphous microparticles (MP) prepared from Ca2+ and the physiological inorganic polymer, polyphosphate (polyP). Those MP had been fortified by mixing with poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL) to allow 3D-bioprinting. The resulting granular PCL/Ca-polyP-MP hybrid material, liquefied by short-time heating to 100 °C, was used for the 3D-printing of tissue-like scaffolds formed by strands with a thickness of 400 µm and a stacked architecture leaving ≈0.5 mm2-sized open holes enabling cell migration. The printed composite scaffold turned out to combine suitable biomechanical properties (Young’s modulus of 1.60 ± 0.1 GPa; Martens hardness of 153 ± 28 MPa), matching those of cortical…
Highlights * An elastic degradable polyurethane (PU) bearing pendent HSNGLPL peptide for TGF-β1 affinity binding mimics the extracellular matrix function to retain and release growth factors. * The pendant peptide sequence presented a high affinity for TGF-β1 retaining, even when the surface was pre-coated with other proteins. * The synthesized PU shows good extrusion processing ability and can be printed into 3D scaffolds with designed porous structures. * The released TGF-β1 from surface conjugating was tested by differentiation guiding experiments of ATDC5 cells in vitro and the regeneration of the surrounding tissue after implanting in vivo.