Alginate/Gelatin-Based Hydrogel with Soy Protein/Peptide Powder for 3D Printing Tissue-Engineering Scaffolds to Promote Angiogenesis

In recent years, 3D bioprinting has attracted broad research interest in biomedical engineering and clinical applications. However, there are two issues need to be solved urgently at present, the development of ink is the first pressing thing for 3D printing tissue engineering scaffold, other thing is the promotion of angiogenesis in the scaffold. Therefore, a gelatin/sodium alginate-based hydrogel with protein-rich is developed here, which is prepared by gelatin, sodium alginate, and soy protein/soy peptide powder. The prepared inks exhibit excellent shear-thinning behavior, which contribute to extrusion-based printing; also shown good crosslinking ability by calcium chloride. The macroporous composite scaffolds are printed by 3D printing using the developed ink and the physicochemical properties of the scaffolds are evaluated. Moreover, the cytocompatibility of printed scaffold is characterized by using human umbilical vein epidermal cells, results show that the scaffolds with soy protein and soy peptide powder can promote cell attach, spread, migration, and proliferation. The further research of chicken embryo allantoic membrane assay and animal experiment are carried, and results present that the scaffold can promote the growth of neo-vessels in the scaffold, which means the developed ink with soy protein and soy peptide powder has great potential for angiogenesis.

Automated summary

In recent years, 3D bioprinting has gained extensive research interest for biomedical engineering and clinical applications. This study developed a gelatin/sodium alginate-based hydrogel with protein-rich ink for 3D printing tissue engineering scaffold. The ink exhibited excellent shear-thinning behavior and good crosslinking ability. The printed scaffold showed favorable physicochemical properties and enhanced cell attachment, spreading, migration, and proliferation. Furthermore, the scaffold promoted the growth of neo-vessels, indicating its potential for angiogenesis.