[메디칼업저버 박선혜 기자] A Korean research team has developed a new 3D bioprinting material and system that does not damage transplanted cells.
Professor Jeon Heung-jae of the Department of Medical Life Sciences at the Catholic University of Korea developed a water-soluble chitosan bio-ink using organic synthesis techniques as a material that can be printed in the visible light region, not ultraviolet light, together with Professor Yang Dae-hyuk of the Cell Tissue Engineering Research Institute. Through this, the possibility of application as a comprehensive tissue engineering and regenerative medicine platform was presented.
3D printing has recently been in the spotlight in the field of stem cell-regenerative medicine in that it can design and manufacture cells and scaffolds to be transplanted according to the shape and size of the lesion, so-called patient-customization.
There are various materials used for bio-ink, a printing material, but among them, hydrogel is attracting attention because it has the structure most similar to living tissue.
However, there was a problem that ultraviolet rays were used in the process of curing the water-soluble sol to form a three-dimensional structure, which inevitably damages stem cells printed with ink due to the nature of ultraviolet rays.
In order to solve this problem, Professor Heungjae Jeon’s research team tried to develop a material that can be cured in the visible light region instead of ultraviolet light.
It has developed a water-soluble 3D printing ink by introducing an organic synthesis technique to chitosan, which has potential as a biomaterial among natural products but is limited in its use due to its poor solubility. Through this, a 3D bioprinting system that does not damage the transplanted cells was created by enabling printing in the visible light region instead of ultraviolet light.
Although the chitosan selected by the research team is a natural product with the widest range of applications as a biomaterial, it has not been used as a bio-ink due to its low water solubility.
However, ‘methacrylate glycol chitosan (MeGC)’ is produced when methacrylated on the water-soluble polymer glycol chitosan (GC) produced by introducing a glycol group into chitosan. The research team determined that MeGC has high potential for use because it can be cured not only in ultraviolet light but also in visible light.
In order to verify this hypothesis, various factors such as printability (stacking power), protein adsorption, cell viability, and cell proliferation of MeGC were analyzed.
In particular, it was confirmed that MeGC-70, which was formed by photocuring 3% of the precursor solution for 70 seconds, remarkably improved bone differentiation compared to bioinks under other conditions.
Professor Jeon Heung-jae said, “I am happy to be able to achieve outstanding results in research conducted with the support of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (strategic core material technology development project). “he said.
Meanwhile, this study was published in Carbohydrate Polymers, an international academic journal in organic chemistry, on July 1.
