Study of Tissue Printing Parameters for Generating Complex Tissue Constructs

A mixture of agarose, MEM IX and HeLa cells (dubbed Bio-Ink) was created to allow normal cell interaction with the scaffold material (agarose) before crosslinking as an initial step in 3D printing tissue. Bio-Ink was developed successfully as an in situ-scaffolding material for engineering biological structures. Bio-Ink has been further conditioned by adjusting agarose composition and gelling time to obtain optimal HeLa cell growth. After detailed study, the time range available for printing this material, before full crosslinking occurs, was determined to be about 300 s, giving it attractive properties for 3D printing. Repeatable 10 mm thick prints were successful, although more system calibration is still needed to achieve more complex prints.