Establishing a Dynamic in vitro Culture System to enhance the functionality of 3D-Bioprinted Skin-like Constructs

Bioprinted 3D constructs have been increasingly devised as a tool to study the behaviour of different types of cells in an environment that better mimics what happens in vivo since it allows the accurate and high speed deposition of various cells and matrices at high resolution in complex 3D structures. This represents a major advantage to recreate the different microenvironments/microfunctionalities found in each tissue thus enlightening the potential of 3D bioprinting for the development of physiologically reliable 3D in vitro tissue models. Skin, as an anisotropic and highly complex tissue, has yet to be completely replicated by means of tissue engineering approaches, including bioprinting. One of the shortcomings so far has been the failure to provide biochemical cues to the laden cells that then translate into a native-like mature tissue. While extracellular matrix-based bioinks represent a promising approach to tackle this issue, less attention has been devoted to role of mechanical forces in the maturation skin constructs, particularly those prepared by 3D printing technologies. In this project, we expect to establish a dynamic in vitro system capable of providing the required mechanical stimuli on bioprinted skin constructs to not only be able to better understand the influence of mechanical forces in skin maturation and remodelling, but to ultimately develop an skin substitute with enhanced functionality. Acknowledgments: FCT/MCTES PD/BD/135248/2017; FCT Doctoral Program in Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells PD/00169/2013; FSE/POCH – PD/169/2013, NORTE-08-5369-FSE-000037, Consolidator Grant Project “ECM_INK” (ERC-2016-COG-726061), H2020-TWINN-2015 Gene2Skin project and THE DISCOVERIES CTR (739572)