Biofabrication of Composite Bioink-Nanofiber Constructs: Effect of Rheological Properties of Bioinks on 3D (Bio)Printing and Cells Interaction with Aligned Touch Spun Nanofibers

This paper reports on a novel approach for the fabrication of composite multilayered bioink-nanofibers construct. This work achieves this by using a hands-free 3D (bio)printing integrated touch-spinning approach. Additionally, this work investigates the interaction of fibroblasts in different bioinks with the highly aligned touch-spun nanofibers. This work conducts a comprehensive characterization of the rheological properties of the inks, starting with low-strain oscillatory rheology to analyze the viscoelastic behavior, when the material structure remains intact. Moreover, this work performs amplitude sweeps to investigate the stability of the inks under large deformations, rotational rheology to examine the shear thinning profile, and a three-step creep experiment to study time-dependent rheological behavior. The obtained rheological results are correlated to visual observation of the flow behavior of inks. These behaviors span from an ink with zero-shear viscosity, very weak shear thinning, and no thixotropic behavior to inks exhibiting flow stress, pronounced shear thinning, and thixotropy. It is demonstrated that inks have an essential effect on cell behavior. While all bioinks allow a preferred directionality of the fibroblasts along the fiber direction, cells tend to form aggregates in bioinks with higher viscosity, and a considerable number of agglomerates are observed in the presence of laponite-RD. Biofabrication of composite bioink-nanofibers constructs resembles the complex architecture of tissue extracellular matrix. For this, 3D (bio)printing of inks integrated touch-spinning of highly aligned nanofibers is investigated. The rheological properties of the inks and the cells interaction with the nanofibers show enhanced extrusion properties and cell motility and alignment along the fiber's main direction, respectively.image

Automated summary

This paper presents a novel approach for fabricating composite multilayered bioink-nanofiber constructs using a hands-free 3D (bio)printing integrated touch-spinning approach. The interaction between fibroblasts and highly aligned touch-spun nanofibers in different bioinks is also investigated. The rheological properties of the inks are comprehensively characterized and correlated with the flow behavior of the inks. The results show that the bioinks have a significant effect on cell behavior, with higher viscosity bioinks leading to the formation of cell aggregates.