Ferric ion crosslinking-based 3D printing of graphene oxide and its evaluation as bio-scaffold in tissue engineering
Renhao Lu1,#, Wuhua Zhang1, Yuting He2, 3, Siyuan Zhang1, Qian Fu2, 3, Yuan Pang1, 4, *, Wei Sun1, 4, 5, *
1 Biomanufacturing Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Haidian District, Beijing 100084, China
2 Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems, Chongqing University, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400044, China
3 Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
4 Biomanufacturing and Rapid Forming Technology Key Laboratory of Beijing, Beijing 100084, China
5 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
# Current affiliation: Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA;
* Yuan Pang and Wei Sun contributed equally and are co-corresponding authors.
Corresponding authors:
Yuan Pang, Ph.D.
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Room A730, Lee Shau Kee Science and Technology Building, Haidian District, Beijing 100084, P. R. China
Email: pangyuan31@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn, Tel: +86 15652179395
Wei Sun, Ph.D.
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Room A743, Lee Shau Kee Science and Technology Building, Haidian District, Beijing 100084, P. R. China.
Email: weisun@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn, sunwei@drexel.edu, Tel: +86 13522556809
Abstract As a precursor of graphene, graphene oxide (GO) exhibits excellent mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties, besides appreciable biocompatibility in tissue engineering applications. However, the current GO-3D fabrication technology is still in need of optimization and simplification in order to ensure fine architecture and reasonable mechanical property, which would further promote the performance of GO as bio-scaffolds in cell or microorganism attachment and in material transformation. To address this issue, we proposed a GO ink, with appreciable rheological properties and excellent printing performance via high-speed centrifugation and ferric ion-assisted cross-linking. A woodpile structure with controllable micro-pores was produced by micro-extrusion-based 3D printing technology followed by an optimized freeze-drying process. Cellular adhesion and viability were verified by inoculation and culture of HepaRG cells using the fabricated GO 3D structure, thus suggesting ferric ion-assisted cross-linking and controllable pore distribution to improve the performance of GO construct as a bio-scaffold for in-vitro liver tissue models.
Keywords: graphene oxide, 3D printing, lyophilization, porous structure, liver tissue engineering