Fast Setting Silk Fibroin Bioink for Bioprinting of Patient-Specific Memory-Shape Implants

The pursuit for the “perfect” biomimetic and personalized implant for
musculoskeletal tissue regeneration remains a big challenge. 3D printing
technology that makes use of a novel and promising biomaterials can be part
of the solution. In this study, a fast setting enzymatic-crosslinked silk fibroin
(SF) bioink for 3D bioprinting is developed. Their properties are fine-tuned
and different structures with good resolution, reproducibility, and reliability
can be fabricated. Many potential applications exist for the SF bioinks
including 3D bioprinted scaffolds and patient-specific implants exhibiting
unique characteristics such as good mechanical properties, memory-shape
feature, suitable degradation, and tunable pore architecture and morphology.