Dually crosslinked injectable alginate-based graft copolymer thermoresponsive hydrogels as 3D printing bioinks for cell spheroid growth and release

In this work a dual crosslinked network based on sodium alginate graft copolymer, bearing poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-N-tert-butylacrylamide) P(NIPAM-co-NtBAM) side chains was developed and examined as a shear thinning soft gelating bioink. The copolymer was found to undergo a two-step gelation mechanism; in the first step a three-dimensional (3D) network is formed through ionic interactions between the negatively ionized carboxylic groups of the alginate backbone and the positive charges of Ca2+ divalent cations, according to the “egg-box” mechanism. The second gelation step occurs upon heating which triggers the hydrophobic association of the thermoresponsive P(NIPAM-co-NtBAM) side chains, increasing the network crosslinking density in a highly cooperative manner. Interestingly, the dual crosslinking mechanism resulted in a five-to-eight-fold improvement of the storage modulus implying reinforced hydrophobic crosslinking above the critical thermo-gelation temperature which is further boosted by the ionic crosslinking of the alginate backbone. The proposed bioink could form arbitrary geometries under mild 3D printing conditions. Last, it is demonstrated that the proposed developed bioink can be further utilized as bioprinting ink and showcased its ability to promote human periosteum derived cells (hPDCs) growth in 3D and their capacity to form 3D spheroids. In conclusion, the bioink, owing its ability to reverse thermally the crosslinking of its polymer network, can be further utilized for the facile recovery of the cell spheroids, implying its promising potential use as cell spheroid-forming template bionk for applications in 3D biofabrication.