Mechanical protection and spheroid formation of mammalian cells in 3D printable hydrogel inks

Abstract

3D printing is becoming prevalent and has many applications in science and engineering landscape. In recent years, mammalian cells have been incorporated into 3D printing to obtain functional tissues. However, these cells get damaged during the printing process as they experience various mechanical stresses. This study aims to investigate if hydrogel particle encapsulation provides protection for cells against mechanical damage. Various alginate-based hydrogels were explored for cell encapsulations. Cells were encapsulated in these hydrogel particles and subjected to mechanical stresses during the 3D printing process with inks of varying viscosities. It was proven that suspending cells within inks of a higher viscosity tend to cause more damage to cells. A comparison of cell viability was done between encapsulated and non-encapsulated cells. Results show that the viability of encapsulated cells were significantly higher than those that were not encapsulated and therefore, proving that encapsulation of cells within hydrogel particles does provide protection to cells during the 3D printing process.