Assessment of the Viability and Mechanoresponsiveness of hMSC-TERT Printed with Bioinert, Thermoresponsive Hydrogels

This study delves into the short-term biological ramifications of 3D extrusion printing of telomerase-immortalized human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSC-TERT) embedded in bioinert hydrogels.

Pluronic F127 and custom-synthesized poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline)-block-poly(2-n-propyl-2-oxazine) (POx/POzi) are synthetic, block copolymers that create shear-thinning, physically crosslinked hydrogels that were used for this study. The rheological properties of the cell-free hydrogels and cell-laden bioinks were examined, revealing that they exhibited comparable behavior. Contrary to the original hypotheses, a key finding of this research is the reduction in cell viability (up to 50 %) within 24 h post-printing, a trend consistently observed across varying initial conditions.