@article {19367, title = {Engineering patient-specific bioprinted constructs for treatment of degenerated intervertebral disc}, journal = {Materials Today Communications}, volume = {19}, year = {2019}, month = {2019-06-04 00:00:00}, pages = {506-512}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {

Lower back pain (LBP), which is strongly associated with intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration, is one of the
most frequently reported age- and work-related disorder in actual society, leading to a huge socio-economic impact
worldwide. The current treatments have poor clinical outcomes and do not consider each patient needs.
Thus, there is a growing interest in the potential of personalized cell-based tissue engineering (TE) approaches
aimed to regenerate the damaged IVD and efficiently restore full disc function. In this work, a bioink composed
by silk fibroin (SF) hydrogel combined with elastin was used to bioprint patient-specific substitutes mimicking
IVD ultrastructure, and particularly for the outer region of the IVD (i.e. annulus fibrosus, AF). Following a reverse
engineering approach, the proposed strategy makes use of a 3D model of AF obtained by semi-automatic morphological
segmentation from magnetic resonance imaging dataset of human IVD. SF/elastin bioprinted scaffolds
were characterized thoroughly in vitro, in terms of physico-chemical and biological performance. The bioprinted
SF/elastin scaffolds were shown to possess structural and mechanical properties similar to the native AF and
supports cell attachment and growth. Human adipose-derived stem cell cultured onto the SF/elastin bioprinted
scaffolds were shown to adhere, proliferate and maintain metabolic activity and viability up to 21days of culturing.
The implantation of custom-made SF/elastin implants that best emulate a patient AF anatomy can potentially
open up new personalized treatments for tackling IVD disorders by means of improving recovery time after
surgery and help to restore spine biofunctionality

}, keywords = {3D printing, intervertebral disc, Patient-specific, Reverse Engineering, Silk Fibroin}, issn = {2352-4928}, doi = {10.1016/j.mtcomm.2018.01.011}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352492817301344}, author = {Costa, J. B. and Silva-Correia, J. and Ribeiro, V. P. and da Silva Morais, A. and Oliveira, J. M. and Reis, R. L.} }