3D printing for human tendon-muscle gradient scaffolds engineering

Abstract

We propose a continuous extrusion technique to fabricate tendon-muscle gradient scaffolds, with a smooth myotendinous junction (MTJ). The bio-inks were provided with tissue-specific growth factors from both tendon and muscle decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM). We successfully fabricated gradient scaffolds with three distinctive zones: tendons, muscles, and the MTJ while cell viability remained higher than 95% after 7 days of culturing. The proposed technique could be applied to study interfacial tissue composition and function.