Biodesigned bioinks for 3D printing via divalent crosslinking of self- assembled peptide-polysaccharide hybrids

The demands of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine require biomaterials to be accurately deposited into biomimetic shapes, support cellular behaviour and lead to functional tissue formation. Bioinspired yet synthetic biomaterials offer significant advantages over processed, animal-derived products; including high reproducibility and clinical compliance and specific engineered biomimicry of architecture and biological function. Self-assembling peptides are synthetic highly hydrated scaffolds that are rationally designed to mimic the extracellular matrix of a target tissue. Due to the potential benefits of chemically synthesised self-assembling peptides for clinical translation, their development into tools for biofabrication is warranted. However, these systems can be poorly suited to the demands of biofabrication, particularly when functionalised toward tissue-specific conditions. Here, we demonstrate how to improve biofabrication of self-assembling peptides. The fibrillar network arising from the selfassembling peptide Fmoc-FRGDF (containing cell attachment motif RGD) is combined with the robust polysaccharides agarose and alginate demonstrating enhanced printability and cellular compatibility. This study provides a robust methodology for the on-demand printing of personalised implants with a clinically relevant material. (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The demands of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine require biomaterials to be accurately deposited into biomimetic shapes. Synthetic self-assembling peptides have significant potential as tools for biofabrication, but their suitability for tissue-specific conditions needs improvement. This study demonstrates an enhanced biofabrication capability of self-assembling peptides and provides a robust methodology for the printing of personalized implants.