Green biofabrication of pectin-based scaffolds for Tissue Engineering applications

Reproducing the complex, hierarchical organization and the dynamic functionalities of living tissues remains one of the major challenges in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The introduction of bioprinting technologies in these fields played an important role to bridge the gap between natural and engineered tissues. These technologies are a powerful and versatile toolkit that allows to process biomaterials, living cells and bioactive molecules into three-dimensional, tissue-like constructs by additive approaches with unprecedented reproducibility and accuracy. Developing biomaterial formulations that have specific physicochemical properties while being suitable for bioprinting of 3D scaffolds is one of the main bottlenecks limiting the application of bioprinting in clinical scenario. In this thesis, a library of functional bioprintable inks has been successfully developed by combining pectin, a green polysaccharide derived from byproduct of food process industry, and other biopolymers (e.g. gelatin) and nanoparticles (e.g. multiwalled carbon nanotubes). The crosslinking reaction between (3-Glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane and pectin has been investigated for the first time, and played a key role on obtaining self-supporting, 3D bioprinted scaffolds with complex anatomical shapes (e.g. human ear and nose models). This thesis’s goal is to show that pectin is not only a recycled food thickening agent, but like other biopolymers can be potentially used to produce smart, tailored and multi-tissue implants by extrusion based bioprinting. Therefore, transforming pectin into ecological bioprintable formulations, may open new environmental-friendly perspectives of research, leading to the so-called ‘green biofabrication’ for producing new added-value products.