Postdoctoral Fellow Massachusetts General Hospital Melrose, Massachusetts, United States
Introduction: Considering that tissue development in vivo is a dynamic process occurring over time, so too should the biofabrication techniques used to engineer tissues. We have begun to approach this problem with a new process termed Sequential Additive Biofabrication Extended over Real-time or SABER bioprinting. SABER allows for tissues to be engineered piecewise over long periods of time.
Materials and
Methods: SABER bioprinting was accomplished through identification of a novel support material that suspends printed objects in a specialized bioreactor that allows for direct perfusion into the printed tissues. The support material is thermally sensitive and allows for bioprinting at cold temperatures and holds the printed tissues in place in culture temperatures and this is reversible allowing for tissues to be printed over multiple days. A variety of different printing geometries were used to test the feasibility of the SABER bioprinting platform.
Results, Conclusions, and Discussions: The SABER bioprinting process was verified through a variety of multiday and complex architectural prints of collagen structures. Printed structures were able to be fabricated over multiple days in complex geometries, including a miniaturized heart model printed over four separate days with internal structures present. Tissues were also able to be printed, perfusion cultured, and printed again to create large thickness tissues. These described results highlight the capabilities of SABER bioprinting to dynamically create soft tissues over long periods of time while allowing for perfusion culture. SABER bioprinting has major implications for the field which should allow for improvements in engineering functionally complex tissues and to act as a disease modeling platform.
