2 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
- ItemProspects and challenges of translational corneal bioprinting(Basel : MDPI AG, 2020) Fuest, Matthias; Yam, Gary Hin-Fai; Mehta, Jodhbir S.; Campos, Daniela F.DuarteCorneal transplantation remains the ultimate treatment option for advanced stromal and endothelial disorders. Corneal tissue engineering has gained increasing interest in recent years, as it can bypass many complications of conventional corneal transplantation. The human cornea is an ideal organ for tissue engineering, as it is avascular and immune-privileged. Mimicking the complex mechanical properties, the surface curvature, and stromal cytoarchitecure of the in vivo corneal tissue remains a great challenge for tissue engineering approaches. For this reason, automated biofabrication strategies, such as bioprinting, may offer additional spatial control during the manufacturing process to generate full-thickness cell-laden 3D corneal constructs. In this review, we discuss recent advances in bioprinting and biomaterials used for in vitro and ex vivo corneal tissue engineering, corneal cell-biomaterial interactions after bioprinting, and future directions of corneal bioprinting aiming at engineering a full-thickness human cornea in the lab. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
- ItemEngineering biofunctional in vitro vessel models using a multilayer bioprinting technique([London] : Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, 2018) Schöneberg, Jan; De Lorenzi, Federica; Theek, Benjamin; Blaeser, Andreas; Rommel, Dirk; Kuehne, Alexander J. C.; Kießling, Fabian; Fischer, HorstRecent advances in the field of bioprinting have led to the development of perfusable complex structures. However, most of the existing printed vascular channels lack the composition or key structural and physiological features of natural blood vessels or they make use of more easily printable but less biocompatible hydrogels. Here, we use a drop-on-demand bioprinting technique to generate in vitro blood vessel models, consisting of a continuous endothelium imitating the tunica intima, an elastic smooth muscle cell layer mimicking the tunica media, and a surrounding fibrous and collagenous matrix of fibroblasts mimicking the tunica adventitia. These vessel models with a wall thickness of up to 425 µm and a diameter of about 1 mm were dynamically cultivated in fluidic bioreactors for up to three weeks under physiological flow conditions. High cell viability (>83%) after printing and the expression of VE-Cadherin, smooth muscle actin, and collagen IV were observed throughout the cultivation period. It can be concluded that the proposed novel technique is suitable to achieve perfusable vessel models with a biofunctional multilayer wall composition. Such structures hold potential for the creation of more physiologically relevant in vitro disease models suitable especially as platforms for the pre-screening of drugs.