Memoona Akhtar

PhD student

3D Printed ADA-GEL for Soft Tissue Regeneration

 

Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Wounds are the foremost health apprehension affecting the lives of million of people. Some wounds may pass a threshold diameter to become unrecoverable by themselves and become chronic, they may even lead to mortality. Recently, 3D printing technology has proven to be an effective platform for creating smart wound dressings, overcoming a myriad of challenges, especially when combined with biocompatible hydrogels [1]. Because 3D printing is computerised, it enables complete in-place control over each level of the printed part to produce the desired dressings. If the material of choice has strong printability and can be modified while promoting wound healing, there is potential for its usage to construct wound dressings that can provide better therapy for burn patients given the level of accuracy and customisation that 3D printing brings. In this project, oxidized alginate (ADA) and gelatin (GEL) are crosslinked via the chemical crosslinking method with the aim of developing bioinks [2,3]. 3D-printed ADA-GEL bioinks, after optimization, are loaded with bioactive compounds that can accelerate wound healing rate at the wound site. Later on, the 3D printed ADA-GEL is characterized in terms of morphology, swelling rate, and mechanical integrity. This project is funded by British Council in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, U.K., and the Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad.

[1] S. Schwarz et al., “3D printing and characterization of human nasoseptal chondrocytes laden dual crosslinked oxidized alginate-gelatin hydrogels for cartilage repair approaches,” Mater. Sci. Eng. C, vol. 116, p. 111189, 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2020.111189.

[2] S. Reakasame, A. Jin, K. Zheng, M. Qu, and A. R. Boccaccini, “Biofabrication and Characterization of Alginate Dialdehyde-Gelatin Microcapsules Incorporating Bioactive Glass for Cell Delivery Application,” Macromol. Biosci., vol. 20, no. 10, pp. 1–14, 2020, doi: 10.1002/mabi.202000138.

[3] B. Sarker et al., “Fabrication of alginate-gelatin crosslinked hydrogel microcapsules and evaluation of the microstructure and physico-chemical properties,” J. Mater. Chem. B, vol. 2, no. 11, pp. 1470–1482, 2014, doi: 10.1039/c3tb21509a.