Characterization of gelatin-alginate hydrogel with 3D bioprinter

Burns is a serious public health problem which involves damage from the epidermis layer to the dermis layer of the skin. In most cases, damage beyond superficial dermal wounds is expected to undergo conventional excision and grafting surgery to expedite patient’s recovery process, prevent infection and scarring. For cases where donor sites are limited, alternative treatments such as cultured epithelial autografts will be recommended to the patient. However, this technology still faces some drawbacks, such as poor take rate in full-thickness bed or in chronically infected area, delays in obtaining the grafts, sensitive to infection and high cost. With new emerging technologies such as bioprinting, replicating the ideal artificial skin that mimics the biological function of the human skin will not be too far off. In this study, pressure-assisted syringe based bioprinter is used in conjunction with gelatin-alginate hydrogel with the shape/structural integrity and viability of encapsulated HS-5 cells investigated. Results have shown that gelatin-alginate hydrogel with gelatin 6% and alginate 5% gives the best shape integrity using a set of constant bioprinter parameters. Furthermore, cell study was carried out and showed that the encapsulated cells proliferate with initial cell seeding density of 1.0 x 106 cells/mL while cell spreading was apparent when using initial cell seeding density of 4.0 x 106 cells/mL. Overall results show that the hybrid hydrogel when used together with pressure assisted syringe based bioprinter is a promising strategy towards tissue engineering, such as skin regeneration.Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering