title: Living bacterial sacrificial porogens to engineer decellularized porous scaffolds.
abstract: Decellularization and cellularization of organs have emerged as disruptive methods in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Porous hydrogel scaffolds have widespread applications in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and drug discovery as viable tissue mimics. However, the existing hydrogel fabrication techniques suffer from limited control over pore interconnectivity, density and size, which leads to inefficient nutrient and oxygen transport to cells embedded in the scaffolds. Here, we demonstrated an innovative approach to develop a new platform for tissue engineered constructs using live bacteria as sacrificial porogens. E.coli were patterned and cultured in an interconnected three-dimensional (3D) hydrogel network. The growing bacteria created interconnected micropores and microchannels. Then, the scafold was decellularized, and bacteria were eliminated from the scaffold through lysing and washing steps. This 3D porous network method combined with bioprinting has the potential to be broadly applicable and compatible with tissue specific applications allowing seeding of stem cells and other cell types.
authors.affiliation: Demirci Bio-Acoustic-MEMS in Medicine Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Center for Biomedical Engineering, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: BanuPriya
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sridharan
authors.forename: Naside Gozde
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Durmus
authors.forename: ShuQi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ahmet Sinan
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Yavuz
authors.forename: Umut Atakan
authors.initials: UA
authors.lastname: Gurkan
authors.forename: Utkan
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Demirci
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology*; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity; D051379:Mice; D050296:Microbial Viability; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D016062:Porosity; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D020100:Hydrogels