Innovation on microscale electrohydrodynamic printing for cellular alignment

The extracellular matrix (ECM) of natural tissues and organs is usually composed of micro/nanoscale collagen fiber structures with specific arrangement rules. It is of great significance to establish such micro-structural environments in vitro for regulating cell differentiation/ growth and the construction of functional living tissues. Here a novel micro/nanoscale electrohydrodynamic bioprinting strategy is introduced where the electrostatic field force was applied to replace the traditional mechanical force for guided material extrusion and deposition. This strategy largely reduced the diameter of a single fiber, much smaller than the diameter of the nozzle. This capability enables to realize the controllable deposition of biodegradable biopolymer and living cell/hydrogel fibers in high precision. The applications of the proposed micro/nanoscale electrohydrodynamic cell printing technology on regulating cellular alignment and fabricating functional myocardial tissues in vitro were explored.

Jiankang He is a full professor and Vice Dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering in Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. His research mainly focuses on additive manufacturing and biofabrication. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in Nature Communications, Progress in Materials Science, Advanced Materials etc. His research on the additive manufacturing of biodegradable scaffolds has been in clinical trials. He has been awarded the first prize of Natural Science Awards from Ministry of Education of China in 2019. He received the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2021. He is currently the Executive Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Bioprinting and the Associate Editor of Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering.