Acceleration of tissue maturation by mechanotransduction-based bioprinting

Abstract

The growing number of patients who require organ transplants, combined with the low number of organ donors, has resulted in organ shortages; therefore, the fabrication of human tissues and organs is an urgent need. However, the time required to fabricate an organ may result in risky delays for end-stage patients who urgently require transplants. During bioprinting, the maturation of the engineered tissue that is required before it is ready for implantation is lengthy. Here we use a previously introduced microscopic and mathematical model, the “zipper CAMs” (for cell adhesion molecules), to investigate the effective parameters involved in tissue dynamics. In our current study, we validated the ability of our model to accelerate the tissue maturation process. Our model shows that exploiting cellular mechanotransduction can accelerate post-printing tissue maturation. To verify this prediction experimentally, we devised a mechanotransduction-based bioprinter that accelerates the production of tissues by speeding up the fusion bioink particles. The mathematical microscopic model and the bioprinter described herein are expected to be highly useful in cell biology, tissue engineering, and biofabrication.