Commercial articulated collaborative in situ 3D bioprinter for skin wound healing

Abstract

<i>In situ</i> bioprinting is one of the most clinically relevant techniques in the emerging bioprinting technology because it could be performed directly on the human body in the operating room and it does not require bioreactors for post-printing tissue maturation. However, commercial <i>in situ</i> bioprinters are still not available on the market. In this study, we demonstrated the benefit of the originally developed first commercial articulated collaborative <i>in situ</i> bioprinter for the treatment of full-thickness wounds in rat and porcine models. We used an articulated and collaborative robotic arm from company KUKA and developed original printhead and correspondence software enabling <i>in situ</i> bioprinting on curve and moving surfaces. The results of <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> experiments show that <i>in situ</i> bioprinting of bioink induces a strong hydrogel adhesion and enables printing on curved surfaces of wet tissues with a high level of fidelity. The <i>in situ</i> bioprinter was convenient to use in the operating room. Additional <i>in vitro</i> experiments (<i>in vitro</i> collagen contraction assay and <i>in vitro</i> 3D angiogenesis assay) and histological analyses demonstrated that <i>in situ</i> bioprinting improves the quality of wound healing in rat and porcine skin wounds. The absence of interference with the normal process of wound healing and even certain improvement in the dynamics of this process strongly suggests that <i>in situ</i> bioprinting could be used as a novel therapeutic modality in wound healing.