Principal Investigator: Prof. Charlotte A. E. Hauser
Poster Presenter: Hamed I. Albalawi, Dana M. Alhattab, Panayiotis Bilalis, Aris P. Konstantinidis, and Charlotte A. E. Hauser
Lab: Laboratory for Nanomedicine
Bone tissue engineering offers a promising solution for regenerating damaged bone tissue. Currently, bone graft substitutes are commonly used to address bone loss, but they face challenges in creating intricate, patient-specific scaffolds that resemble natural bone structures. Furthermore, the bone marrow (BM), where hematopoiesis occurs, is a dynamic niche involving various cell types and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. The development of well-defined BM niche mimics will allow the study of the development of different hematopoietic cell lineages and hematological cancer that originates in the BM. Vat-polymerization and fused deposition modeling are standard techniques in bone tissue engineering, with vat-polymerization being advantageous due to its ability to print complex structures and shapes faster than traditional methods. In addition, self-assembling peptide is a promising class of biomaterial that can be used to develop a chemically well-defined nanofibrous hydrogel structure with different mechanical properties. This study aims to combine various materials in the bioprinting process to develop bone and BM tissue mimics. An epoxidized vegetable oil, acting as a monomer in resin, has been explored as a possible alternative for vat-polymerization 3D printing technology. Our proposed calcium phosphate scaffold features channels that enhance the surface area for cell attachment, and it is composed of calcium phosphate and epoxidized soybean oil resin. The material was used to mimic the rigid bone structure and tested for its biocompatibility and support for osteogenic differentiation of stem cells. To further build, the BM niche channels of endothelial cells were fabricated, and the inner mass of the BM was bioprinted using peptide bioink, stromal and hematopoietic cells. Our results demonstrate the potential of our approach in combining different biomaterials in the bioprinting process, leading to the development of tissue mimics suitable for tissue engineering applications and investigational studies.