Collagen-Chitosan inks for 3D-printing

ANA CAROLINA HEIDENREICH; MERCEDES PÉREZ-RECALDE; ANA GONZALEZ WUSENER; ÉLIDA B. HERMIDA

Mar del Plata

Simposio; XVI Simposio Latinoamericano de Polímeros SLAP 2018; 2018

Collagen and chitosan are two biopolymers often usedin hydrogels for tissue engineering applications1,2. Bothhave complementary benefits: the non-rapidbiodegradability and good mechanical properties ofchitosan and the cellular adhesion of collagen. Blendsof them using different techniques were developed forcorneal applications, skeletal muscle tissue, islettransplantation, endothelial and skin tissue3?7,9amongothers. But, as far as we know, these two biomaterialshave not been used for 3D-bioprinting yet. With theaim of developing chitosan-collagen inks, rheologicalstudies were performed. Dynamic viscosity of differentCollagen:Chitosan inks were measured and correlatedwith their capacity to be printed (printability: Pr).Homogenous blends of chitosan and collagenhydrogels could be printed with acceptable shapefidelity and adequate printing process. The passagefrom hydrogel precursors, present in inks, to hydrogelafter printing is an important challenge since bothpolymers have to be crosslinked to get the desiredsubstrate morphology. Our preliminary results showthat pH neutralisation and crosslinking activatorsallows to achieve a desired substrate.