Page 150 - IJB-9-2

International Journal of Bioprinting

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Development of an alginate–gelatin bioink

enhancing osteogenic differentiation by gelatin
release

Jueun Kim , Yeong-Jin Choi , Chang-Woo Gal Aram Sung , Honghyun Park *,
1,2
2
2
2
2,
Hui-Suk Yun *
1,2
1 Department of Advanced Materials Engineering, University of Science and Technology (UST), 217
Gajeon-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, South Korea
2 Department of Advanced Biomaterials Research, Ceramic Materials Division, Korea Institute of
Materials Science (KIMS), 797 Changwon-daero, Seongsan-gu, Changwon, South Korea
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Polysaccharides modification for 3D-bioink innovative development in
tissue engineering)
Abstract

Hydrogels are natural bioink options for cellular printing due to their high-water
content and permeable three-dimensional (3D) polymeric structure, which are
favorable for cellular anchoring and metabolic activities. To increase the functionality
of hydrogels as bioinks, biomimetic components are often incorporated, such
as proteins, peptides, and growth factors. In this study, we aimed to enhance the
osteogenic activity of a hydrogel formulation by integrating both the release and
retention of gelatin so that gelatin serves as both an indirect support for released
ink component on cells nearby and a direct support for encapsulated cells inside a
printed hydrogel, thereby fulfills two functions. Methacrylate-modified alginate (MA-
*Corresponding authors: alginate) was chosen as the matrix because it has a low cell adhesion effect due to
Honghyun Park the absence of ligands. The gelatin-containing MA-alginate hydrogel was fabricated,
(honghyun61@kims.re.kr)
Hui-Suk Yun and gelatin was found to remain in the hydrogel for up to 21 days. The gelatin
(yuni@kims.re.kr) remaining in the hydrogel had positive effects on encapsulated cells, especially
on cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. The gelatin released from the
Citation: Kim J, Choi Y-J, Gal C-W,
et al., 2023, Development of an hydrogel affected the external cells, showing more favorable osteogenic behavior
alginate–gelatin bioink enhancing than the control sample. It was also found that the MA-alginate/gelatin hydrogel
osteogenic differentiation by gelatin could be used as a bioink for printing with high cell viability. Therefore, we anticipate
release. Int J Bioprint, 9(2): 660.
https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v9i2.660 that the alginate-based bioink developed in this study could potentially be used to
induce osteogenesis in bone tissue regeneration.
Received: June 30, 2022
Accepted: October 21, 2022
Published Online: January 3, 2023
Keywords: Multi-component hydrogel; Bioprinting; Gelatin; Alginate; Bone tissue
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). engineering; Cell-laden scaffold
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution
and reproduction in any medium, 1. Introduction
provided the original work is
properly cited. Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is a type of additive manufacturing that is used to
Publisher’s Note: Whioce construct 3D organ- and tissue-like structures from cells, growth factors, and biomaterials.
Publishing remains neutral with These biomaterial inks, or “bioinks,” are designed to mimic tissue characteristics and
regard to jurisdictional claims in [1,2]
published maps and institutional provide functionality for tissue regeneration . In details, the bioinks are defined as a
affiliations. formulation of cells containing biologically active components and biomaterials, which

Volume 9 Issue 2 (2023) 142 https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v9i2.660