Researchers primarily based in Dresden, Germany are considering not solely the way forward for healthcare supplies but additionally their potential purposes past Earth. Michael Gelinsky, professor and head of the Middle for Translational Bone, Joint, and Delicate Tissue Analysis, alongside together with his workforce, are growing residing inks that might probably be utilized by astronauts to deal with accidents sustained on prolonged area missions, the place support from Earth isn’t an choice –– like Mars.
Analogous to the ink cartridge in your workplace printer, bioinks comprise residing cells suspended in an answer of a biopolymer or mix of biopolymers, comparable to alginate or gelatin. However as a substitute of printing a doc, extrusion-based bioprinters use bioinks to supply layered 3D hydrogel constructs embedded with the cells contained within the ink.
These constructs, whose shapes are preprogrammed into a pc, have been used to supply patient-specific implants and generate life-like fashions that mimic organ tissue, which can be utilized for fundamental analysis functions.
The challenges with bioinks in area
At present, cell-laden bioinks have solely been printed on Earth, the place the required amenities, tools, and employees can be found, and the consequences of gravity are identified. Bioprinting underneath microgravity, comparable to on the Worldwide House Station (ISS), the place sources and crew are restricted, is a extra difficult matter.
To ensure that cell-laden bioinks to outlive the rocket launch and journey to the ISS, they must be saved at low temperatures, probably as much as a month. Ideally, they might be saved within the type of a ready-to-use cartridge that could possibly be loaded by astronauts into an extrusion-based bioprinter put in on the ISS.
“The European House Company ESA has commissioned an trade consortium to construct such a tool, mixed with a unit for additional cultivation of the bioprinted constructs,” Johannes Windisch, a Ph.D. scholar in Gelinsky’s analysis group, knowledgeable us. “If pre-mixed (i.e., cell-laden) bioinks could possibly be launched and immediately used for the bioprinting course of, this might facilitate the entire process considerably.”
Getting ready and assessing the bioinks
To research the feasibility of this situation, the researchers included inexperienced microalgae and completely different mammalian cell varieties into alginate–methylcellulose (Alg–MC) scaffolds. These included a human mesenchymal stem cell line (hTERT-MSC), liver (HepG2) and bone (SAOS-2) cell strains, and first human dental pulp stem cells.
To arrange the bioinks, they first dissolved a combination of alginate and methylcellulose in water, phosphate-buffered saline, or human plasma. Then, they added the stay cells and loaded the completely different bioink formulations into cartridges, which they saved for one to 4 weeks at 4°C, a temperature that may be simply maintained all through the method of delivering cargo to the ISS.
After warming the cartridges to room temperature, they used the bioinks to print 3D scaffolds, which they ionically crosslinked and incubated underneath optimum situations for as much as 28 days.
The authors discovered that whatever the cold-storage interval, all of the bioinks maintained their printability, regardless of a lower in viscosity. Notably, storing the microalgae-laden bioink at 4°C barely affected the viability and performance of the microalgae, which is understood to tolerate a wide range of environmental situations.
Even after 4 weeks of storage, the microalgae might nonetheless bear photosynthesis, utilizing out there mild to supply oxygen with an effectivity much like that of the reference group of contemporary microalgae. On area missions, microalgae-laden bioinks might probably be used for all times help, sewage purification, and as a meals or nutrient supply.
In distinction to microalgae, whose viability was primarily unaffected by low-temperature storage, the viabilities of the human cells declined to various extents. Nevertheless, when the cells have been restored to optimum situations after storage, their viabilities recovered. The information recommend that metabolically energetic cells are extra affected by chilly storage than quiescent cells, and the storage temperature was extra influential than the storage period.
“For each cell sort of curiosity, first the optimum bioink composition and in addition the storage situations should be evaluated. Our research is simply is the place to begin for extra detailed investigations,” Johannes identified.
Earth-based purposes
Though the authors envision that these bioinks could someday be used to generate patient-specific tissues to deal with injured astronauts, within the meantime, they could possibly be used to supply 3D tissue fashions for investigating the consequences of microgravity, radiation, and different situations that astronauts are subjected to in area.
“As well as, the consequences of microgravity on the bioprinting course of should be investigated additional to have the ability to arrange a workflow and outline the design of bioprinted constructs that will lastly work on the ISS,” stated Anja Lode, one other of the research’s authors. “For this, our lab will carry out first bioprinting experiments on a parabolic flight marketing campaign in September 2023, supported by the German House Company at DLR.”
When requested how storable bioinks would possibly enhance the present bioprinting processes on Earth and what new purposes would possibly come up, Johannes had a number of concepts.
“Storable bioinks would enable performing bioprinting experiments in labs that aren’t outfitted for the manufacturing and harvesting of enormous cell numbers. They might additionally facilitate bioprinting purposes exterior of analysis labs, for instance, in hospitals and even for the therapy of individuals injured in pure disasters or army conflicts. Lastly, the manufacturing and buying and selling of storable bioinks could possibly be an attention-grabbing enterprise mannequin.”
Reference: Johannes Windisch, Olena Reinhardt, Michael Gelinsky, et al.,Bioinks for House Missions: The Affect of Lengthy-Time period Storage of Alginate-Methylcellulose-Based mostly Bioinks on Printability in addition to Cell Viability and Operate, Superior Healthcare Supplies (2023). DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202300436
Characteristic picture credit score: The New York Public Library on Unsplash
