Page 539 - IJB-10-2

International

Journal of Bioprinting

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Bottom-up and top-down VAT

photopolymerization bioprinting for rapid
fabrication of multi-material microtissues

Daniel Nieto *, Alberto Jorge de Mora , Maria Kalogeropoulou , Anant Bhusal ,
2
1
3
1
Amir K. Miri , and Lorenzo Moroni 1
4
1 Complex Tissue Regeneration Department, MERLN Institute for Technology Inspired
Regenerative Medicine, Universiteitssingel 40, 6229ER Maastricht, The Netherlands
2 University Hospital of Santaigo de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rowan University, NJ 08028, USA
4 Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark,
NJ 07102, USA
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Advanced light-based bioprinting)

Abstract

Over the years, three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting has attracted attention for
being a highly automated manufacturing system that allows for the precise design
of living constructs where cells and biomaterials are displaced in predefined
positions to recreate cell–matrix and cell–cell interactions similar to native tissues.
Such technologies rarely offer multi-material features. In this paper, we present
a new approach for bioprinting of multi-material tissue constructs using VAT
photopolymerization at high resolution and fidelity. We developed a versatile
*Corresponding author: dual-mode bioprinter that can easily be modulated to print in both top-down
Daniel Nieto and bottom-up approaches. The custom-built platform was then used to fabricate
(daniel.nieto@udc.es)
microtissues and hydrogel microfluidic models. Combining bottom-up and top-
Citation: Nieto D, Jorge de Mora down biofabrication tools can offer an optimal solution for hard–soft multi-material
A, Kalogeropoulou M, Bhusal A, composites and for bioprinting tissue–tissue interface models. We demonstrated the
Miri AK, Moroni L. Bottom-up and
top-down VAT photopolymerization possibility for hard–soft multi-material bioprinting by generating musculoskeletal
bioprinting for rapid fabrication of tissue with integrated microvasculature. Combining multiple material bioprinting
multi-material microtissues. Int J and microfluidic chips shows advantages in two aspects: precise regulation of
Bioprint. 2024;10(2):1017.
doi: 10.36922/ijb.1017 microenvironment and accurate emulation of multi-tissue interfaces.
Received: May 30, 2023
Accepted: July 18, 2023 Keywords: VAT photopolymerization; Digital light processing; Multi-material bio-
Published Online: April 2, 2024
printing; Microtissues; Bottom-up and top-down bioprinting; Musculoskeletal tissue
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution, 1. Introduction
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting has been benchmarked as a promising technology
properly cited. for creating disease models and microtissues for drug screening applications [1-4] . The main
Publisher’s Note: AccScience working principle of this technology, and its ultimate goal, is the fabrication of 3D artificial
Publishing remains neutral with tissues that can closely replicate the natural biological microenvironments of native
regard to jurisdictional claims in [5]
published maps and institutional tissues, using a wide range of biomaterials laden with living cells . Such microtissue
affiliations. models can be further integrated into microfluidic encasements containing chambers

Volume 10 Issue 2 (2023) 531 doi: 10.36922/ijb.1017