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Cited by 231Silk-based biomaterials and applications3D Printing in Biomedical ResearchHydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications

3D printed silk-gelatin hydrogel scaffold with different porous structure and cell seeding strategy for cartilage regeneration

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Li, Qingtao, Xu, Sheng, Feng, Qi, Dai, Qiyuan, Yao, Longtao, Zhang, Yichen, Gao, Huichang, Dong, Hua +2 more·2021·Bioactive Materials
DOI 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.03.013PMC PMC8010633
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Abstract

Hydrogel scaffolds are attractive for tissue defect repair and reorganization because of their human tissue-like characteristics. However, most hydrogels offer limited cell growth and tissue formation ability due to their submicron- or nano-sized gel networks, which restrict the supply of oxygen, nutrients and inhibit the proliferation and differentiation of encapsulated cells. In recent years, 3D printed hydrogels have shown great potential to overcome this problem by introducing macro-pores within scaffolds. In this study, we fabricated a macroporous hydrogel scaffold through horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-mediated crosslinking of silk fibroin (SF) and tyramine-substituted gelatin (GT) by extrusion-based low-temperature 3D printing. Through physicochemical characterization, we found that this hydrogel has excellent structural stability, suitable mechanical properties, and an adjustable degradation rate, thus satisfying the requirements for cartilage reconstruction. Cell suspension and aggregate seeding methods were developed to assess the inoculation efficiency of the hydrogel. Moreover, the chondrogenic differentiation of stem cells was explored. Stem cells in the hydrogel differentiated into hyaline cartilage when the cell aggregate seeding method was used and into fibrocartilage when the cell suspension was used. Finally, the effect of the hydrogel and stem cells were investigated in a rabbit cartilage defect model. After implantation for 12 and 16 weeks, histological evaluation of the sections was performed. We found that the enzymatic cross-linked and methanol treatment SF5GT15 hydrogel combined with cell aggregates promoted articular cartilage regeneration. In summary, this 3D printed macroporous SF-GT hydrogel combined with stem cell aggregates possesses excellent potential for application in cartilage tissue repair and regeneration.

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  • 3D-printed SF-GT hydrogel has a promising clinical application in promoting cartilage regenerative repair.

    “This suggests that 3D-printed SF-GT hydrogel has a promising clinical application in promoting cartilage regenerative repair [72].”

    From Recent Advances in Silk Fibroin-Based Composites for Bone Repair Applications: A Review (2025) · cites this paper as [72]

    The Conclusions say that a 3D-printed SF-GT hydrogel may have broad clinical applications in promoting cartilage repair. That finding is specifically for the EM-SF5GT15 scaffold combined with stem-cell aggregate seeding; the citing sentence omits this condition and attributes the potential to the hydrogel generally. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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Authors
Li, Q., Xu, S., Feng, Q., Dai, Q., Yao, L., Zhang, Y., Gao, H., Dong, H., Chen, D., & Cao, X.
Affiliations
  • South China University of Technology (CN)
  • Key Laboratory of Guangdong Province (CN)
  • Beijing Jishuitan Hospital (CN)
Corresponding author
  • Chen, Dafu
  • Cao, Xiaodong
ORCID
Venue
Bioactive Materials
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-10
Volume
6
Issue
10
Pages
3396-3410
ISSN
  • 2097-1192 (ISSN-L)
  • 2452-199X
DOI
10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.03.013
PMC
PMC8010633
OpenAlex
W3144936187
Cited by
231
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 19 · 2025: 40 · 2024: 56 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 14
FWCI
11.24
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Bioactive Materials (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFC1106300)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (51873069, 51873071, 52073103)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › Silk-based biomaterials and applications
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › 3D Printing in Biomedical Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Medicine › Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
Keywords
silk fibroin, gelatin, hydrogel scaffolds, 3D printing, macroporous scaffolds, extrusion-based printing, cell seeding, cell aggregates, chondrogenic differentiation, articular cartilage regeneration, cartilage defects, rabbit model, methanol treatment, degradation rate

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