• Professor Heungjae Jeon's team (Catholic University) develops a new 3D printing ink and system
    Author : 관리자
    Date : 2022.09.06
    Hit : 386
  •  

    Professor Heungjae Jeon from the Department of Medical Life Sciences, in collaboration with Professor Daehyeok Yang from the Institute of Cell and Tissue Engineering, has developed a new 3D bio-printing material and system that does not damage transplanted cells.


    3D printing has recently been in the limelight in the stem cell-regenerative medicine field as it can design and manufacture transplanted cells and support systems according to the shape and size of the lesion in a patient-customized way.
    There are various materials used for bio-ink, which is a raw material for printing; however, of them, hydrogel is receiving the most attention due to its structure being similar to that of living tissue. However, in the process of hardening the water-soluble sol to form a three-dimensional structure, UV light is used, and it leads to a big problem as the nature of UV light inevitably damages stem cells printed with ink.


    To solve this problem, Professor Heungjae Jeon's team attempted to develop a material that can be hardened in the visible light range instead of the UV light zone. Out of natural raw materials, chitosan, with potential as a biomaterial while limited in its use due to its low solubility, has been introduced into an organic synthesis technique to develop a water-soluble 3D printing ink. And it led to the development of a 3D bioprinting system that is enabled to be printed in the visible light range and does not damage the transplanted cells.

    The chitosan chosen by the team is a natural product that has the widest range of applications as a biomaterial, but it has not been used as a bio-ink due to low solubility.
    However, once the water-soluble high-polymer glycol chitosan (GC) produced by introducing a glycol group into chitosan undergoes treatment with methacrylate, 'methacrylate glycol chitosan (MeGC)' is produced, which is judged by the team that the probability of its use is high enough as this material is stiffened not only by the UV light but also the visible light.
    To prove the validity of this hypothesis, various factors such as printability (stacking capacity), protein adsorption, cell viability, and cell proliferation of MeGC were analyzed, and the result showed that it is structurally stable with minimum toxicity, proving its usability as bioink. It was also revealed that MeGC-70, formed by photo-hardening 3% of the precursor solution for 70 seconds, remarkably improved osteogenic differentiation compared to bioinks under any other conditions.
    The team, based on the result, developed a visible photo-hardening 3D bioprinting system that does not damage the transplanted cells at all, and suggested the possibility of application as a comprehensive tissue engineering and regenerative medicine platform.

    Meanwhile, this study was published on July 1 in the world's most prestigious international academic journal [Carbohydrate Polymers (IF=10.723)], which is ranked top in JCI, Chemistry, Organic; 1/63.

    Professor Heungjae Jeon said, “I am delighted to be able to achieve such outstanding results in research conducted with the aid of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Strategic Core Material Technology Development Project). Once it is commercialized, it can be used in various clinical fields, so I am promoting more systemized and continuous follow-up study."

  • Attachment File
Comment 0