Printable Zwitterionic Hydrogel

Abstract

Zwitterionic hydrogel has gained an increasing attention due to its biocompatibility and antibiofouling property. Fabrication of hydrogel into three-dimensional (3D) constructs using bioprinting is a powerful toolbox for tissue engineering and biological-related applications since it can overcome the limitation of the traditional scaffold-based methods. Here in this research, bioinks for 3D bioprinting was developed from Pluronic F-127 dimethacrylate (F-127 DMA) which acts as a macro-photocrosslinker and two zwitterionic monomers, 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) and sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA). The bioinks having varied composition between F-127 DMA and zwitterionic monomer (MPC or SBMA) were subjected to 3D printing followed by UV-induced crosslinking to yield zwitterionic hydrogels which were characterized for shape integrity and swelling properties. Having the same composition, SBMAbased hydrogels showed higher swelling property and softer than the MPC-based hydrogels. The higher the zwitterionic monomer was, the greater swellability and the weaker mechanical integrity of the gel became. Further systematic investigation on rheological property of the bioinks and mechanical properties of the resulting hydrogels have to be performed before the zwitterionic bioinks can be applied for 3D-bioprinting.