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Pollen-Based Bioink Heralds New Potential for Bioprinting Drugs https://ift.tt/3gK1DzU Bioprinting has made its way out of the lab and… into other labs. We still haven’t seen a true bioprinted organ implant, but the technology has so evolved and proliferated that a wide variety of printers and materials are being sold, mostly to university and corporate labs around the world. So, while the technology is on the precipice of a market explosion, we’re witnessing numerous advances take place. One recent example is that of a bioprinting ink created by researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) using sunflower pollen. The new material is capable of maintaining its shape upon deposition onto a substrate, opening up the possibility of using it as an alternative to other bioprinting inks. Many bioprinting materials—such as hydrogels, cells, and biopolymers—are soft and delicate, presenting difficulties for retaining the desired shape of the print as ink is deposited. In turn, they require support matrix into which they might be extruded during the printing process. This results in waste, as the support material is not used after printing.
To develop an alternative, the NTU team turned to sunflower pollen, which the group has already explored as a natural and renewable resource for other projects, such as eco-friendly paper and biodegradable sponges for cleaning up oil. The process began with the incubation of sunflower pollen in an alkaline solution for six hours to create a pollen microgel. This was then combined with other hydrogels, such as seaweed-derived alginate or hyaluronic acid.
To test the potential of this pollen-based material, the team 3D printed a five-layer tissue scaffold, a process that took about 12 minutes. Collagen was added to the scaffold before it was seeded with human cells with a high cell-seeding efficiency of 96 to 97%, similar to that of more commonly used inverted colloidal crystal hydrogels. In addition to demonstrating the durability of the material, the researchers explored several other possible advantages of sunflower pollen bioink. One exciting possibility was the use of bioprinted scaffolds for drug delivery. Because pollen responds to changes in acidity or alkalinity, the team tested the possibility of printing a stimulus-responsive drug delivery system. To do so, they dripped red dye onto the scaffold, noting that the pollen microgel released the die into the scaffold gradually. When acid was added, more dye was released more quickly, opening up the potential for a controlled release system for medications.
Another advantage they found was that the material could potentially be used as a recyclable support matrix. 3D printing a silicon rubber mesh, the researchers relied on pollen microgel as a support structure. The print was then cured at 75°C (167°F) for 24 hours within the pollen matrix. Once cured, the mesh could be removed and shaped to the curvature of the human elbow and maintained physical properties similar to traditional cast elbow meshes.
In addition to developing sustainable materials, NTU has as a 2025 plan to commercialize its research in order to enhance the country’s economy and quality of life. In turn, the researchers are looking to work with industry partners to perfect their 3D printing technique and bring it closer to commercialization. There are a number of companies we could imagine being interested in this development. Bico Group (previously known as Cellink), is a quickly growing biomedical company that has made a string of acquisitions that could be excited about the possibilities of a sustainable bioink. 3D Systems, too, has been rapidly increasing its presence in the bioprinting space. Korea’s ROKIT Healthcare may be a bit closer in terms of physical location. There’s an entire global map of bioprinting businesses that could be great partners for such a project. Regardless of who takes this opportunity, the research is yet a further demonstration of the exciting work that is coming out of NTU Singapore. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com August 30, 2021 at 07:24AM
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