Page 208 - IJB-9-3

International Journal of Bioprinting

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Integrating zinc/silicon dual ions with 3D-printed

GelMA hydrogel promotes in situ hair follicle
regeneration

Fanliang Zhang , Zhaowenbin Zhang , Xianlan Duan , Wei Song , Zhao Li ,
1
2†
1†
1
1
Bin Yao , Yi Kong , Xing Huang , Xiaobing Fu , Jiang Chang *, Sha Huang *
1
1
2,4
1
3
1
1 Research Center for Tissue Repair and Regeneration Affiliated to the Medical Innovation Research
Department, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, China
2 Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, Zhejiang 325000, China
3 Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of
Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China
4 State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai
Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200050, China
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Integrated Biofabrication Technologies for Constructing Functional
Tissue)
Abstract
The regeneration of hair follicles lost from injury or disease represents a major
challenge in cutaneous regenerative medicine. In this study, we investigated the
synergetic effects between zinc and silicon ions on dermal cells and screened the
† These authors contributed equally optimal concentration of ions for medical applications. We integrated zinc/silicon
to this work. dual ions into gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) to bioprint a scaffold and determined
*Corresponding authors: that its mechanical properties are suitable for biological treatment. Then, the scaffold
Sha Huang was employed to treat mouse excisional model in order to promote in situ hair follicle
(stellarahuang@sina.com) regeneration. Our findings showed that GelMA-zinc/silicon-printed hydrogel can
Jiang Chang significantly activate hair follicle stem cells and enhance neovascularization. The
(jchang@mail.sic.ac.cn)
beneficial effects of the scaffold were further confirmed by the growth of hairs in
Citation: Zhang F, Zhang Z, Duan X, the center of wounds and the improvement in perfusion recovery. Taken together,
et al., 2023, Integrating zinc/silicon the present study is the first to combine GelMA with zinc/silicon dual ions to bioprint
dual ions with 3D-printed GelMA
hydrogel promotes in situ hair follicle in situ for treating excisional wound, and this approach may regulate hair follicle
regeneration. Int J Bioprint, 9(3): 703. regeneration not only directly by impacting stem cells but also indirectly through
https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.703
promoting angiogenesis.
Received: November 25, 2022
Accepted: January 13, 2023
Published Online: March 8, 2023 Keywords: Zinc and silicon ions; 3D bioprinting; GelMA; Hair follicle regeneration;
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). Angiogenesis
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. After dermal injury, adult skin wound typically heals with the formation of scar tissue
and appendages, including hair follicles, which will be lost and cannot be completely
Publisher’s Note: Whioce [1-3]
Publishing remains neutral with recreated . However, in some situations, mouse dorsal skin is capable of regenerating
regard to jurisdictional claims in functional hair follicles, which is described as the neogenic hair follicles growing from
published maps and institutional the center of the wound to its margin . The manner of regeneration is called in situ hair
[4]
affiliations.

Volume 9 Issue 3 (2023) 200 https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.703