A Supramolecular Injectable Methacryloyl Chitosan‐Tricine‐Based Hydrogel with 3D Printing Potential for Tissue Engineering Applications

Abstract

AbstractPrintable hydrogels have attracted significant attention as versatile, tunable, and spatiotemporally controlled biomaterials for tissue engineering (TE) applications. Several chitosan‐based systems are reported presenting low or no solubility in aqueous solutions at physiological pH. Herein, a novel neutrally charged, biomimetic, injectable, and cytocompatible dual‐crosslinked (DC) hydrogel system based on a double functionalized chitosan (CHT) with methacryloyl and tricine moieties (CHTMA‐Tricine), completely processable at physiological pH, with promising three‐dimensional (3D) printing potential is presented. Tricine, an amino acid typically used in biomedicine, is capable of establishing supramolecular interactions (H‐bonds) and is never explored as a hydrogel component for TE. CHTMA‐Tricine hydrogels demonstrate significantly greater toughness (ranging from 656.5 ± 82.2 to 1067.5 ± 121.5 kJ m−3) compared to CHTMA hydrogels (ranging from 382.4 ± 44.1 to 680.8 ± 104.5 kJ m−3), highlighting the contribution of the supramolecular interactions for the overall reinforced 3D structure provided by tricine moieties. Cytocompatibility studies reveal that MC3T3‐E1 pre‐osteoblasts cells remain viable for 6 days when encapsulated in CHTMA‐Tricine constructs, with semi‐quantitative analysis showing ≈80% cell viability. This system's interesting viscoelastic properties allow the fabrication of multiple structures, which couple with a straightforward approach, will open doors for the design of advanced chitosan‐based biomaterials through 3D bioprinting for TE.