Chondrocyte-laden GelMA hydrogel combined with 3D printed PLA scaffolds for auricle regeneration

  • Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2021 Nov:130:112423. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2021.112423.
Pei Tang  1 ,  Ping Song  2 ,  Zhiyu Peng  3 ,  Boqing Zhang  2 ,  Xingyu Gui  2 ,  Yixi Wang  1 ,  Xiaoxia Liao  1 ,  Zhixing Chen  1 ,  Zhenyu Zhang  1 ,  Yujiang Fan  2 ,  Zhengyong Li  4 ,  Ying Cen  1 ,  Changchun Zhou  2
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery, West China School of Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 610041 Chengdu, China.
  • 2. National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China; College of Biomedical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
  • 3. Department of Thoracic Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China.
  • 4. Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery, West China School of Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 610041 Chengdu, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 34702546 DOI: 10.1016/j.msec.2021.112423
Abstract

The current gold standard for auricular reconstruction after microtia or ear trauma is the autologous cartilage graft with an autologous skin FLAP overlay. Harvesting autologous cartilage requires an additional surgery that may result in donor area complications. In addition, autologous cartilage is limited and the auricular reconstruction requires complex sculpting, which requires excellent clinical skill and is very time consuming. This work explores the use of 3D printing technology to fabricate bioactive artificial auricular cartilage using chondrocyte-laden gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) and polylactic acid (PLA) for auricle reconstruction. In this study, chondrocytes were loaded within GelMA hydrogel and combined with the 3D-printed PLA scaffolds to biomimetic the biological mechanical properties and personalized shape. The printing accuracy personalized scaffolds, biomechanics and chondrocyte viability and biofunction of artificial auricle have been studied. It was found that chondrocytes were fixed in the PLA auricle scaffolds via GelMA hydrogels and exhibited good proliferative properties and cellular activity. In addition, new chondrocytes and chondrogenic matrix, as well as type II Collagen were observed after 8 weeks of implantation. At the same time, the transplanted auricle complex kept full and delicate auricle shape. This study demonstrates the potential of using 3D printing technology to construct in vitro living auricle tissue. It shows a great prospect in the clinical application of auricle regeneration.

Keywords
3D printing; Artificial auricular; Cartilage; PLA/gelatin methacrylamide; Tissue engineering scaffold.
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