Dr. Hui Zhu

Former Post Doc

High performance 3D-bioprinted composite hydrogels containing bioactive glass particles

 

Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Aldo R. Boccaccini

3D-bioprinting is an attractive technique that utilizes a layer-by-layer method to deposit biomaterials to mimic the structure and function of living tissues. However, in several cases, this promising technique is hindered by potential inferior mechanical properties of biocompatible bioink materials. The main objectives of this research project is to produce a 3D-printed cell-laden construct with significantly improved mechanical properties. The printability and printing fidelity of the polymeric bioink are expected to be optimized by adding silicate spherical silicate bioactive glass nanoparticles (BGN) [1-3]. Specific bioactive ions are considered to be incorporated into BGN to provide novel biological effects to the printed constructs [4]. Furthermore, encapsulation of osteoblasts into the bioink is expected to confirm the potential of the new material system for future applications in bone tissue engineering.

 

[1] Á.J. Leite, et al., Bioplotting of a bioactive alginate dialdehyde-gelatin composite hydrogel containing bioactive glass nanoparticles, Biofabrication 8 (2016) 035005.

[2] M. Lee, et al., Exploitation of Cationic Silica Nanoparticles for Bioprinting of Large-Scale Constructs with High Printing Fidelity, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 10 (2018) 37820-37828.

[3] S. Reakasame, et al., Cell laden alginate-keratin based composite microcapsules containing bioactive glass for tissue engineering applications, Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine 29 (2018) 1573-4838.

[4] K. Zheng, et al., Sol-gel processing of bioactive glass nanoparticles: A review, Advances in Colloid & Interface Science 249 (2017) 363.