Post on 18-Jan-2021
E M E R G E M AT3rd International Conference on Emerging Technologies in Materials Engineering
29-30 October 2020 - Bucharest, Romania
NOVEL BIOPOLYMERIC BASED COMPOSITES INKS
FOR TISSUE ENGINEERING APPLICATIONSRebeca Leu Alexa1, Horia Iovu1, Catalin Zaharia, Claudia Ninciuleanu2, Bogdan Trica2, Elvira
Alexandrescu2, Silviu Preda3, Andrada Serafim1, Ionut-Cristian Radu1, George Vlasceanu1,
Luminita Miclea1, Raluca Ianchis2*
1Politehnica University of Bucharest, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, 1–7 Polizu Street, s1, 01106,
leurebeca@gmail.com2National R-D Institute for Chemistry and Petrochemistry ICECHIM – Bucharest, Spl. Independentei 202, 6th district,
0600021, Romania, ralumoc@yahoo.com3Institute of Physical Chemistry ‘‘Ilie Murgulescu’’, Romanian Academy, Spl. Independentei 202, 6th district, 0600021
Bucharest, Romania, predas01@yahoo.co.uk
Keywords: biopolymer, clay, composites inks,
additive manufacturing
INTRODUCTION: In the last few years,
montmorillonite clay mineral has found
applications in various industries, but especially
in biomedical applications. This is because
montmorillonite is a low-cost product but also
an FDA-approved additive [1, 2]. With the
emerging modern technologies, the benefits of
using clay minerals have also been explored for
the additive manufacturing of customized
medical scaffolds. Due their high specific
surface, swelling capacity, adjustable
rheological behaviour and hydrophilicity, clay
minerals were proved to be suitable candidates
for the obtaining of hydrogel based composites
materials. By blending clay with various
polymer matrices, improvements of mechanical
and biological properties, have been found. It
was also proved that the integration of clay
allowed the obtaining of 3D constructs with high
printing fidelity [3].
In this study, we successfully printed 3D
composite constructs using a biopolymer based
composite ink. Methacrylated gelatine was used
as the biopolymeric ink and several types of
clay as inorganic filler. Through the inclusion of
clay, our goal was to decrease the requisite
polymeric content while preserving printing
fidelity. The presence of clay into the printing ink
influenced the printing parameters of the 3D
constructs but also the morphological and
structural properties of the resulted composite
materials.
Therefore, the present preliminary studies could
be very useful for the development of soft
material based composite inks foreseen for the
additive manufacturing of customized implants
for bone tissue engineering applications.
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian
Ministry of Education and Research, CCCDI–UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P2-
2.1-PED-2019-4216, within PNCDI III. This work was funded by the Operational
Programme Human Capital of the Ministry of European Funds through the Financial
Agreement 51668/09.07.2019, SMIS code 124705.
References: 1. R. Ianchis, C.M. Ninciuleanu, I.C. Gifu, E. Alexandrescu, C.L. Nistor, S.G. Nitu, C.
Petcu, Current Medicinal Chemistry 25 (2018) 1. 2. R. Ianchis, C.M. Ninciuleanu, I.C. Gifu, E.
Alexandrescu, R. Somoghi, A.R. Gabor, S. Preda, C.L. Nistor, S.G. Nitu, C. Petcu, M. Icriverzi, P.E.
Florian, A.M. Roseanu, Nanomaterials 7 (2017) 443. 3. Z.-K. Cui, S. Kim, J.J. Baljon, B.M. Wu,T.
Aghaloo, M. Lee, Nature Communication 10 (2019) 3523.
CONCLUSIONS: The newly developed GelMA based inks compounded with different types of clay allowed the printing of 3D constructs which will further serve as a
suitable support for the administration of nutrients and oxygen to the target growing tissues. The type of clays induced changes in morphology, structure and
properties of nanocomposite inks, but also to the 3D printed constructs. The biological analyses revealed an enhanced cell proliferation upon increasing time, both
at the surface and inside of the materials, the nanocomposite inks generating biocompatible scaffolds which allowed cells to attach, migrate and proliferate.
PhD student, Rebeca Leu – University Politehnica of Bucharest – leurebeca@gmail.com
1H-NMR spectra of a) GelMA and b) Gelatin I. FTIR spectra of: a) Cloisite Na, b) GelMA- Cloisite Na, c) GelMA;
II. FTIR spectra of: a) Cloisite 30B, b) GelMA- Cloisite 30B, c) GelMA;
III. FTIR spectra of: a) Cloisite 15A, b) GelMA- Cloisite 15A, c) GelMA
X-ray diffractograms with
the characteristic diffraction peak at
2θ for GelMA-ClNa, GelMA-Cl15A,
GelMA-Cl30B
TEM images of a) GelMA-ClNa
and b) GelMA-Cl15A
SEM images showing the microstructure aspect of GelMA,
GelMA-ClNa, GelMA-30B and GelMA-15A scaffolds
(magnitude x25, x50, x50, x100, x1000)
Microscopy images in fluorescence and visible (VIS) light for cell growth in all
polymers stained for actin (green) and for nucleus (blue); the blurry aspect is
consistent with the growth of cells inside the materials
Swelling degree of GelMA, GelMA-ClNa,
GelMA-Cl30B, GelMA-Cl15A
Shear viscosity versus shear rate of inks at 37 °C, B. Elastic modulus versus
frequency of swollen samples at equilibrum (37 °C), C. Compressive stress
versus compressive strain of samples at equilibrum (37 °C)
Water contact angle measurements
a) GelMA, b) GelMA-ClNa,
b) c) GelMA-30B, d) GelMA-15A