Surface functionalization of microscaffolds produced by high-resolution 3D printing: A new layer of freedom.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Scaffolded-spheroids represent novel building blocks for bottom-up tissue assembly, allowing to produce constructs with high initial cell density. Previously, we demonstrated the successful differentiation of such building blocks, produced from immortalized human adipose-derived stem cells, towards different phenotypes, and the possibility of creating macro-sized tissue-like constructs in vitro . The culture of cells in vitro depends on the supply of various nutrients and biomolecules, such as growth factors, usually supplemented in the culture medium. Another means for growth factor delivery ( in vitro and in vivo ) is the release from the scaffold to alter the biological response of surrounding cells (e.g. by release of VEGF). 1 As a proof of concept for this approach, we sought to biofunctionalize the surface of the microscaffolds with heparin as a "universal linker" that would allow binding a variety of growth factors/biomolecules. An aminolysis step in an organic solvent made it possible to generate a hydrophilic and charged surface. The backbone of the amine, as well as reaction conditions, led to an adjustable surface modification. The amount of heparin on the surface was increased with an ethylene glycol-based diamine backbone and varied between 8 and 40 ng per microscaffold. Choosing a suitable linker allows easy adjustment of the loading of VEGF and other heparin-bind

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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