The ability to formulate bioprinting inks in which suspensions of cells and other biological materials can be maintained, without affecting biological response, is crucial in producing robust printing strategies for tissue fabrication. A piezoelectrically actuated drop-on-demand printing system has been used to deposit electrostatically stabilised cells from a human osteosarcoma cell line (U2OS). Experiments were intended to investigate the effectiveness of a polyelectrolyte cell encapsulant to maintain cell dispersion within a bio ink. Cells were coated with a number of thicknesses of a Cationic Poly-l-lysine (PLL) encapsulant and their ability to release studied over 7 days, with the thinner coatings proving to be more favourable. Printing of both coated and uncoated cells indicated the dispersion and printability of coated cells was significantly better than that of uncoated cells. Preliminary results suggest that electrostatic stabilisation of bio inks could provide a solution to cell aggregation, increasing viable printing time and decreasing poor yields due to orifice obstruction.
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