A customized extrusion-based 3D bioprinter applied for muscle cell-laden nanocellulose alginate bioink

Fabrication of functional tissues and organs aims to solve the organ shortage crisis for transplant and to produce animal-free meat alternatives and better biomechanical and pharmacokinetic models. 3D bioprinting is emerging as one of the most popular approaches for biofabrication. However, equipment and materials for the process still come with a high cost and to overcome this problem, many groups choose to create their own devices. The present work describes a customized extrusion-based 3D bioprinter that operates with a mechanical dispensing system and its use to print CELLINK™ Bioink loaded with immortalized mouse myoblasts constructs. Computational simulations were performed to optimize the printing process and minimize the generated shear stress to enhance cellular viability of printed constructs. Besides the high cell viability after the bioprinting processes, our results showed an increase in cell spreading and proliferation after 14 days, indicating the printing process did not compromise cell behavior. The cell morphology assay further demonstrated cell alignment and figures of mitosis were evident in several fields of the bioprinted construct.