A porous gelatin methacrylate-based material for 3D cell-laden constructs

All original data for the manuscript "A porous gelatin methacrylate-based material for 3D cell-laden constructs" Abstract: Three-dimensional constructs are fundamental in tissue engineering and cancer modelling, generating a demand for tailored materials creating a suitable microenvironment for cell culture and amenable to be shaped through techniques such as bioprinting. Gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) is a well-known functionalized natural polymer with good printability and binding motifs allowing cell adhesion. Encapsulated cells however tend to retain a spherical shape because of the tight internal structure characterized by microscale pores. In this work, we blended GelMa with Pluronic F-127 (PLU) to modify the hydrogels’ internal porosity. We found that adding 0.5% w/v PLU resulted in a structure characterized by larger mesoscale pores surrounded by the typical microscale GelMA network. The increase in porosity also led to an increased swelling ability and a slight decrease in the Young’s modulus. All blends formed stable hydrogels both when cast in annular molds and bioprinted in more complex structures. Embedded tumor and non-tumor cells maintained high cell viability and behaved differently: neuroblastoma cells (SK-N-AS) showed a tendency to form aggregates inside the mesoscale pores, while mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) stretched in all three dimensions, forming cell-cell and cell-ECM interactions using the free space of the large pores.