AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition
    Biomaterial Interfaces Division Tuesday Sessions
       Session BI-TuP

Paper BI-TuP15
Bovine Aortical Endothelial Cell Encapsulation with Elastin-like polypeptides (ELP) and bis(sulfosuccinimidyl)suberate (BS3).

Tuesday, October 31, 2017, 6:30 pm, Room Central Hall

Session: Biomaterial Interfaces Poster Session with Flash presentations
Presenter: Phuong Anh Nguyen, University of New Mexico
Authors: P.A.H. Nguyen, University of New Mexico
T. Diez Perez, University of New Mexico
H.E. Canavan, University of New Mexico
N.J. Carroll, Universiity of New Mexico
Correspondent: Click to Email
Chronic wounds do not adequately recover through the healing process and have become a major challenge to healthcare systems worldwide. In the U.S., chronic wounds affect an estimated 6 million people per year, costing more than $25 billion annually due to complications and over $18.5 billion in associated care. Current biomaterials for wound healing scaffolds including aglinate, hydrofibers, foam, hydrogels, cadaver skins, fetal cow skin, skin grafts or fish skin to wounds to encourage healing. However, common drawbacks include poor biocompatibility, risk of disease transmission and host rejection. Bioprinting of hydrogel materials has emerged as a flexible tool with potential to obviate these problems. For example, tissue engineering by extrusion bioprinting uses robotic deposition to print cells encapsulated in hydrogel scaffolds to form new organs or tissues. However, biocompatible and biofunctional materials for printable hydrogels are lacking. We propose to encapsulate cells in novel microgel materials, elastin-like-polypeptides (ELP), to create printable bioinks that are biocompatible, bioinert, and recapitulate physicochemical cues of natural extracellular matrices. In our study, ELP hydrogels are formed by crosslinking ELPs with bis(sulfosuccinimidyl)sulfate (BS3), an amine-reactive crosslinker, to encapsulate bovine aortic endothelial cells within the formed hydrogels. Initial testing via live/dead assays shows cells are able to survive in the hydrogel scaffold for many days. Hydrogel stiffness can easily be controlled via temperature, pH, and crosslinker concentrations. Future work leveraged from these assays will be encapsulation and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MCMs) for programmable wound healing.