Development of heterogeneous bioinks with microgels for creating 3D tissue engineering models for drug screening

To achieve clinical relevance, tissue-engineered constructs should replicate the metabolic activity and vasculature of native tissues and organs. Currently, conventional bioinks struggle to mimic the structural complexity of human tissues. Adding microgels with living cells into bioinks enables precise control over structural and functional complexity, offering a scalable
platform for regenerative therapies and drug testing. The study introduces a heterogeneous bioink with microgels designed to bioprint tissue engineering constructs with complex architecture. To do this, we optimized the 1.5% wt. alginate bioink composition adding Pluronic F-127 10% wt. together with 3.75% wt. gelatin microgels, fabricated via droplet microfluidics. An extrusion bioprinter was used to print test structures using this compound. As a result, it was possible to outline the first steps toward an effective protocol for creating tissue-engineered constructs from the multicomponent hydrogel solution with CT-26 eGFP cell viability up to 95% for the 10th cultivation day.