(176e) Post-Processing of 3D Bioprinted Human Dermal Tissue in the Dynamic Culture Environment of a Taylor-Couette Device

The use of three-dimensional (3D) printing in the production of human skin has gained traction in its development over recent years. With 3D printing, the spatial position of native skin cells can be precisely controlled in the 3D tissue microenvironment of artificial skin constructs and the production of biomimetic human skin can be scaled up more efficiently. While the processing step is important in the skin bioprinting pipeline, the post-processing step should not be neglected as well to ensure cell viability and appropriate cell differentiation after printing. However, current choices for the post-processing of skin are mainly culturing constructs in static conditions or utilizing perfusion or rotatory bioreactors for a dynamic culture environment. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of a Taylor-Couette device as a bioreactor in the post-processing of bioprinted human dermal construct, owing to its advantage of having a simple design and geometry which benefits scale up.

The feasibility of the use of a Taylor-Couette bioreactor in the maturation of bioprinted dermal constructs will be discussed and contrasted with bioprinted dermal constructs cultured in static conditions in cell culture plates. Results obtained from MTS Assay, LIVE/DEAD Assay and Haematoxylin and Eosin staining will be presented to demonstrate the ability of the Taylor-Couette bioreactor in enhancing cellular metabolism and viability of fibroblasts with minimal detrimental effects to its morphology. Through this study, we hope to show the potential of the Taylor-Couette bioreactor as an alternative method for the post-processing of dermal tissues when it comes to the bioprinting of human skin.