Page 80 - MSAM-3-1

Materials Science in

Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Effect of bioactive borate glass on printability

and physical properties of hydrogels

Fateme Fayyazbakhsh 1,2,3 *, Mehedi H. Tusar , Yue-Wern Huang , and
1
3,4
Ming C. Leu 1,2,3
1 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Missouri University of Science and
Technology, Rolla, Missouri, United States of America
2 Intelligent System Center, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri, United
States of America
3 Center for Biomedical Research, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri,
United States of America
4 Department of Biological Sciences, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri,
United States of America

Abstract

Hydrogels are a key component in bioinks and biomaterial inks for bioprinting due to
their biocompatibility and printability at room temperature. The research described
in the present paper contributes to the advancement of bioprinting by studying the
effect of bioactive borate glass (BBG) incorporated into hydrogels on printability and
physical properties. In this study, we fabricated 3D-printed hydrogel scaffolds using
gelatin and alginate hydrogel mixture incorporated with various amounts of BBG,
a bioceramic rich in therapeutic ions including boron, calcium, copper, and zinc.
We investigated the effect of incorporating BBG on the density, viscosity, physical
*Corresponding author:
Fateme Fayyazbakhsh interactions, chemical structure, and shear thinning behavior of gelatin-alginate
(f.fba@mst.edu) hydrogel biomaterial ink at different temperatures. After 3D printing and crosslinking
of scaffolds, we measured mechanical properties and printing outcomes. The near-
Citation: Fayyazbakhsh F,
Tusar MH, Huang Y, et al. Effect optimal extrusion temperature and pressure for uniform extrusion of hydrogel
of bioactive borate glass on filaments at various BBG contents were determined. We compared the printing
printability and physical properties outcomes by quantifying the uniformity of printed filaments and shape fidelity of
of hydrogels. Mater Sci Add Manuf.
2024;3(1):2845. printed scaffolds. The rheological analysis showed that the addition of BBG increased
doi: 10.36922/msam.2845 the viscosity of the biomaterial inks and Young’s modulus of the 3D-printed scaffolds.
Received: January 30, 2024 Biomaterial inks with a dynamic viscosity within the range of 4.5 – 6.5 Pa·s showed the
best printability across all samples. In conclusion, the inclusion of BBG contributes to
Accepted: March 11, 2024
a substantial improvement in the physical properties and printability of 3D-printed
Published Online: March 22, 2024 gelatin-alginate hydrogels.
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the Keywords: Bioprinting; Hydrogel; Bioactive glass; Extrudability; Printability; Shape fidelity
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited. 1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: AccScience Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting, a transformative technology in tissue engineering,
Publishing remains neutral with uses layer-by-layer deposition of various bioink and biomaterial ink formulations to
regard to jurisdictional claims in 1,2
published maps and institutional fabricate living tissues and biomimetic structures. As per the terminology proposed
affiliations. by Groll et al., the term “bioink” generally describes a formulation of cells suitable for

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/msam.2845