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Rapid assembling organ prototypes with controllable cell-laden multi-scale sheets

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Abstract

A native organ has heterogeneous structures, strength, and cell components. It is a big challenge to fabricate organ prototypes with controllable shapes, strength, and cells. Herein, a hybrid method is developed to fabricate organ prototypes with controlled cell deposition by integrating extrusion-based 3D printing, electrospinning, and 3D bioprinting. Multi-scale sheets were first fabricated by 3D printing and electrospinning; then, all the sheets were assembled into organ prototypes by sol–gel reaction during bioprinting. With this method, macroscale structures fabricated by 3D printing ensure the customized structures and provide mechanical support, nanoscale structures fabricated by electrospinning offer a favorable environment for cell growth, and different types of cells with controllable densities are deposited in accurate locations by bioprinting. The results show that L929 mouse fibroblasts encapsulated in the structures exhibited over 90% survival within 10 days and maintained a high proliferation rate. Furthermore, the cells grew in spherical shapes first and then migrated to the nanoscale fibers showing stretched morphology. Additionally, a branched vascular structure was successfully fabricated using the presented method. Compared with other methods, this strategy offers an easy way to simultaneously realize the shape control, nanofibrous structures, and cell accurate deposition, which will have potential applications in tissue engineering.

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Acknowledgements

This work was sponsored by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51805474, 51622510, U1609207), the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51821093), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2017M621915).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Qing Gao, Peng Zhao, Ruijian Zhou, Peng Wang, Jianzhong Fu & Yong He

  2. Key Laboratory of 3D Printing Process and Equipment of Zhejiang Province, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Qing Gao, Peng Zhao, Ruijian Zhou, Peng Wang, Jianzhong Fu & Yong He

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  1. Qing Gao
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  2. Peng Zhao
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  3. Ruijian Zhou
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  4. Peng Wang
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  5. Jianzhong Fu
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  6. Yong He
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Correspondence to Yong He.

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Q.G, P.Z, R.Z, P.W, J.F and Y.H declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This paper does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Gao, Q., Zhao, P., Zhou, R. et al. Rapid assembling organ prototypes with controllable cell-laden multi-scale sheets. Bio-des. Manuf. 2, 1–9 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42242-019-00032-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42242-019-00032-z

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