Here, we investigated the usefulness of silk fibroin nanofibers obtained via mechanical grinding of degummed silkworm silk fibers as an additive in bioinks for extrusion three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting of cell-laden constructs. The nanofibers could be sterilized by autoclaving, and addition of the nanofibers improved the shear thinning of polymeric aqueous solutions, independent of electric charge and the content of cross-linkable moieties in the polymers. The addition of nanofibers to bioinks resulted in the fabrication of hydrogel constructs with higher fidelity to blueprints. Mammalian cells in the constructs showed >85% viability independent of the presence of nanofibers. The nanofibers did not affect the morphologies of enclosed cells. These results demonstrate the great potential of silk fibroin nanofibers obtained via mechanical grinding of degummed silkworm silk fibers as an additive in bioinks for extrusion 3D bioprinting.

在这里，我们研究了通过机械研磨脱胶的蚕丝纤维获得的丝素蛋白纳米纤维作为生物墨水添加剂的用途，用于对充满细胞的结构进行挤出三维（3D）生物打印。纳米纤维可以通过高压灭菌进行灭菌，并且纳米纤维的添加改善了聚合物水溶液的剪切稀化，与聚合物中的电荷和可交联部分的含量无关。在生物墨水中添加纳米纤维可以制造出对蓝图具有更高保真度的水凝胶结构。构建体中的哺乳动物细胞显示出 >85% 的活力，与纳米纤维的存在无关。纳米纤维不影响封闭细胞的形态。这些结果证明了通过机械研磨脱胶蚕丝纤维获得的丝素蛋白纳米纤维作为挤出 3D 生物打印生物墨水添加剂的巨大潜力。