Photo-cross-linkable hyaluronic acid bioinks for bone and cartilage tissue engineering applications

ABSTRACT

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is of immense importance to biomaterials science and biomedical engineering. It is finding applications in diverse areas of bioengineering ranging from scaffolds for disease modelling to tissue culture for reconstruction. This review focuses on recent research on the role of HA as a photo-cross-linked bioink and its importance in combating bone and cartilage-related disease, injury and disorders. Photo chemical modifications and 3D fabrication technologies employed to produce HA-modified materials are analysed to provide a fundamental understanding of the structure–function-property relationships that influence printability, shape fidelity and biological performance both in-vitro and in-vivo. The article concludes with a future vision for HA-based bioinks and their deployment in light-based bioprinting technologies for bone and cartilage repair.

KEYWORDS:

• Hyaluronic acid
• bioink
• photo-cross-linkable
• bioprint
• 3D-print
• tissue engineering
• bone
• cartilage

Acknowledgments

Farnaz Ghorbani gratefully acknowledges the support of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation. She also acknowledges Professor Aldo R. Boccaccini from the Institute of Biomaterials, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, for a valuable discussion about printable hydrogels. Farnaz Ghorbani contributed to the conceptualization, methodology, validation, investigation, data curation, visualization, writing – original draft – review & editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition of this research. Behafarid Ghalandari contributed to conceptualization, methodology, validation, investigation, data curation, visualization, writing – original draft – review & editing of the study. Mehran Khajehmohammadi contributed to investigation, methodology, and visualization of the study. Negar Bakhtiary, Hamidreza Tolabi, Melika Sahranavard, Sonia Fathi-Karkan, Vida Nazar, Shalaleh Hasan Niari Niar, Amirhosein Armoon, Milad Tavakoli Banizi contributed to investigation, methodology of the research. Maurice N. Collins contributed to conceptualization, validation, writing – review & editing of the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).