Comparative analysis of the residues of granular support bath materials on printed structures in embedded extrusion printing.

Embedded extrusion printing facilitates the fabrication of complex biological structures using soft hydrogels that are challenging to construct using conventional manufacturing methods. While this targeting strategy is appealing, the residues of support materials on the printed objects have been overlooked. Here, we quantitatively compare the bath residues on fibrin gel fibers printed in granular gel baths that are conjugated with fluorescent probes for visualization, including physically crosslinked gellan gum (GG) and gelatin (GEL) baths and chemically crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol baths.

"Out-of-the-box" Granular Gel Bath Based on Cationic Polyvinyl Alcohol Microgels for Embedded Extrusion Printing.

Embedded extrusion printing provides a versatile platform for fabricating complex hydrogel-based biological structures with living cells. However, the time-consuming process and rigorous storage conditions of current support baths hinder their commercial application. This work reports a novel "out-of-the-box" granular support bath based on chemically crosslinked cationic polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) microgels, which is ready to use by simply dispersing the lyophilized bath in water.