A comparison study of hyaluronic acid hydrogel exquisite micropatterns with photolithography and light-cured inkjet printing methods

The microstructure design of hydrogel materials offers a broad range of practical applications and is extensively used in flexible sensors, polymer microneedles, microfluidic chips, and other biomedical engineering fields. Among the bio-sourced hydrogels, oligomeric hyaluronic acid (HA) possesses wound healing, anti-tumor, and angiogenesis properties. However, micropatterning soft hydrogels, such as HA-relative hydrogels containing 90% water by weight, continue to pose difficulties for both high precision and micro-scale lithography. The purpose of this study was to compare the photolithography and light-cured inkjet printing methods of methacryloyl HA hydrogel (HAMA-gel) to those for synthetic light-curable polymer resins. Photolithography and light-cured inkjet printing methods with designed scale, high resolution, and little processing times were used to effectively prepare micropatterns of HAMA-gel. The well-shaped micropatterns consisted of parallel channels in tens of micrometers and strip/grid lines in the hundreds of micrometers. Human vein endothelial cells cultured on the material's surface demonstrated that HAMA-gel had good biocompatibility. The width of the flow channel (10 and 20 mu m) was regulated on the surface of the microstructure to allow for simultaneous control of cell growth along the flow channel and groove directions.

Automated summary

The microstructure design of hydrogel materials offers a broad range of practical applications in various biomedical engineering fields. This study compared the photolithography and light-cured inkjet printing methods for methacryloyl HA hydrogel (HAMA-gel) to those for synthetic light-curable polymer resins. The results showed that both methods were effective in preparing well-shaped micropatterns of HAMA-gel with high resolution and little processing time. HAMA-gel also demonstrated good biocompatibility.