Embedded Files
Overview
Overview
If you recall my first blog post, I gave a brief idea as to what my project was. To reiterate, my project is on the mechanical properties of bioink. The importance of this is that these inks are used to print human structures such as hearts and lungs so knowing their mechanical strengths is key to printing the structures. I am using two hydrogels, which are water based bioinks, Gelatin methacrylate and Pluronic F-127 which are very popular in vascular printing and for tissue printing. Pluronic is known to have success in lung tissue printing, but it has horrible structural strength. Whereas GelMA is known to be a much stiffer gel making it harder to manipulate. Down below I have listed my procedure for creating my hydrogels and what I have achieved so far.
Materials
Materials
GelMA (hydrogel)
Pluronic (hydrogel)
Syringes
Blunt needles 35 gauage
Procedure\Progress
Procedure\Progress
Ove the past few weeks I received my materials and started finalizing my designs for my arteries. I have begun the process to create my GelMA bioink and have created about 5 mL so far. I will be creating the rest of it in the coming days and combining both of my hydrogels together to create a unique concentration and mixture. Alongside creating my bioink I will be running pretrials by printing my designs with hair gel and lotion as they are a similar consistency to the bioink. This will also let me know if my designs need any last-minute changing.
Here I am adding the buffer & LAP solution to the vial of GelMA
Creating GelMA ink
Creating GelMA ink
I began by adding 12mg of LAP, which is a photoiniator that helps bind the ink and cells together to be light sensitive, to a buffer (PBS, phosphate-based saline). This solution was heated to 50 degress Celsius and poured into the vial which GelMA was in (as shown above). The dried GelMA was then dissolved in that solution at 50 degress Celsius for about an hour and stirred. I then pulled the ink into a sterile syringe and transferred it into a sterile cartridge. This process took roughly 2 hours including the time for material setup and documenting the process. Now that I know how to perform the process, I will be able to execute it much quicker the next round. The image to the left shows my set up to make the inks. I have it all setup in a fume hood to ensure my safety. The process took longer than I expected it to (roughly 3 hours) because the GelMA was very cold and didn't seem to heat up well. However, I know that I should stir the mixture more so in the next round I can do this faster.
Page updated
Report abuse