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