Bioprinted Gelatin-Recombinant Type III Collagen Hydrogel Promotes Wound Healing

Jianghong Huang^1,2†, Xiaoling Lei^3†, Zhiwang Huang^1†, Zhibin Rong⁴, Haihang Li⁵, Yixin Xie², Li Duan¹, Jianyi Xiong¹, Daping Wang¹, Shihui Zhu⁶, Yujie Liang^2,7*, Jianhao Wang^3*, Jiang Xia^2*

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¹ Department of Orthopedics, Shenzhen Intelligent Orthopaedics and Biomedical Innovation Platform, Guangdong Artificial Intelligence Biomedical Innovation Platform, Shenzhen Second People’s Hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University Health Science Center, Shenzhen, 518035, China

² Department of Chemistry, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China

³ School of Pharmacy, Changzhou University, Changzhou, Jiangsu 213164, China

⁴ Shijiazhuang Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Shijiazhuang, Hubei, 050093, China

⁵ Jiangsu Trautec Medical Technology Co., Ltd, No.28 Shuanglong Road, Jintan Development Zone, Changzhou, Jiangsu, 213200, China

⁶ Department of Burn Surgery, Institute of Burns, the First Affiliated Hospital, Naval Medical University, Shanghai, 200433 China

⁷ Shenzhen Kangning Hospital, Shenzhen Mental Health Center, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518020, China

†These authors contributed equally to this work.

IJB 2022, 8(2), 517 https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v8i2.517

Received: 18 November 2021 | Accepted: 29 December 2021 | Published online: 24 February 2022

© 2022 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )

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Abstract

Artificial skins are biomaterials that can replace the lost skin or promote the regeneration of damaged skin. Skin regenerative biomaterials are highly applauded because they can exempt patients with severe burns from the painful procedure of autologous skin transplantation. Notwithstanding decades of research, biocompatible, degradable, and printable biomaterials that can effectively promote skin regeneration as a transplantation replacement in clinical use are still scarce. Here, we report one type of all-protein hydrogel material as the product of the enzymatic crosslinking reaction of gelatin and a recombinant type III collagen (rColIII) protein. Doping the rColIII protein in gelatin reduces the inflammatory response as an implant underneath the skin. The all-protein hydrogel can be bioprinted as scaffolds to support the growth and proliferation of 3T3 fibroblast cells. The hydrogel used as a wound dressing promotes wound healing in a rat model of skin damage, showing a faster and healthier recovery than the controls. The rColIII protein in the hydrogel has been shown to play a critical role in skin regeneration. Altogether, this work manifests the development of all-protein gelatin-rColIII hydrogel and demonstrates its use in wound healing. The gelatin-collagen hydrogel wound dressing thereby may become a promising treatment of severe wounds in the future.

Keywords

Gelatin

Recombinant collagen

Hydrogel

Artificial skin

Wound healing

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