abstract
Granular inks comprising jammed hydrogel unit building blocks are emerging as multiprogramable precursors for 3D/4D printing nonbulk hydrogel constructs. In addition to their injectability, they also exhibit high porosity when compared to bulk hydrogels, allowing more efficient nutrient transport and cell migration through the scaffold structure. Herein, the key steps in the production of these inks, from the fabrication of the microgels, the jamming process, and how fabrication affects final material properties, such as porosity, resolution, and fidelity is reviewed. In addition, the main techniques used for the stabilization of scaffolds after the printing process and the assessment of cell viability, in the case of bioinks, are meticulously discussed. Finally, the most recent studies in the application of granular hydrogels for different biomedical applications are highlighted. All in all, it is envisioned that 3D-printed granular constructs will continue to evolve towards increasingly stimuli-responsive platforms that may respond in a spatiotemporally controlled manner that matches that of user-defined or biologically encoded processes.
keywords
STOP-FLOW LITHOGRAPHY; MICROGELS; COMPOSITES; DELIVERY
subject category
Materials Science
authors
Ribeiro, LS; Gaspar, VM; Sobreiro-Almeida, R; Camargo, ER; Mano, JF
our authors
Projects
Collaboratory for Emerging Technologies, CoLab (EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES)
Human Platelet Lysates-based Scaffolds for Interfacial Multi-tissue Repair (INTERLYNK)
CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDB/50011/2020)
CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDP/50011/2020)
Associated Laboratory CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials (LA/P/0006/2020)
acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the financial support of Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grants #2018/12871-0, #2021/10844-8, #2013/07296-2 (CEPID), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and Coordination of Superior Level Staff Improvement (CAPES) - Finance Code 001. The authors also wish to acknowledge the support of the European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 for the project InterLynk (Grant agreement: H2020-NMBP-TR-IND-2020, project ID: 953169). The work was also developed within the scope of the project CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020, UIDP/50011/2020 & LA/P/0006/2020, financed by national funds throught the FCT/MEC (PIDDAC).