Better bio-ink may be used to create organs
UBCO investigates gelatin-based gel for regeneration
A new bio-ink that may support a more efficient and inexpensive fabrication of human tissues and organs has been created by researchers at UBC Okanagan.
Keekyoung Kim, an assistant professor at UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering, says this development can accelerate advances in regenerative medicine.
Using techniques like 3D printing, scientists are creating bio-material products that function alongside living cells.
These products are made using a number of bio-materials including gelatin methacrylate (GelMA), a hydrogel that can serve as a building block in bio-printing.
This type of bio-material— called bio-ink— is made of living cells, but can be printed and molded into specific organ or tissue shapes.
The UBC team analyzed the physical and biological properties of three different GelMA hydrogels— porcine skin, cold-water fish skin and cold-soluble gelatin. They found that hydrogel made from cold-soluble gelatin (gelatin which dissolves without heat) was by far the best performer and a strong candidate for 3D organ printing.
“A big drawback of conventional hydrogel is its thermal instability. Even small changes in temperature cause significant changes in its viscosity, or thickness,” says Kim. “This makes it problematic for many room temperature biofabrication systems, which are compatible with only a narrow range of hydrogel viscosities and which must generate products that are as uniform as possible if they are to function properly.”
Kim’s team created two new hydrogels—one from fish skin, and one from cold-soluble gelatin—and compared their properties to those of porcine skin GelMA. Although fish skin GelMA had some benefits, cold-soluble GelMA was the top overall performer. Not only could it form healthy tissue scaffolds, allowing cells to successfully grow and adhere to it, but it was also thermally stable at room temperature.
— Submitted by UBCO