Electrohydrodynamic Jet-Printed Ultrathin Polycaprolactone Scaffolds Mimicking Bruch’s Membrane for Retinal Pigment Epithelial Tissue Engineering

Hang Liu^1,2, Fan Wu², Renwei Chen^1,2, Yanan Chen^1,2, Kai Yao³, Zengping Liu⁴, Bhav Harshad Parikh⁴, Linzhi Jing^1,2, Tiange Liu², Xinyi Su^4*, Jie Sun^3*, Dejian Huang^1,2*

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¹ Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore

² National University of Singapore (Suzhou) Research Institute, Suzhou, China

³ Department of Mechatronic and Robotics, School of Advanced Technology, Xi’an JiaoTong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China

⁴ Department of Ophthalmology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore

IJB 2022, 8(3), 550 https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v8i3.550

Submitted: 1 January 2022 | Accepted: 4 February 2022 | Published: 21 April 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

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of visual loss and affects millions of people worldwide. Dysfunction of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is associated with the pathogenesis of AMD. The purpose of this work is to build and evaluate the performance of ultrathin scaffolds with an electrohydrodynamic jet (EHDJ) printing method for RPE cell culture. We printed two types of ultrathin (around 7 µm) polycaprolactone scaffolds with 20 μm and 50 μm pores, which possess mechanical properties resembling that of native human Bruch’s membrane and are biodegradable. Light microscopy and cell proliferation assay showed that adult human retinal pigment epithelial (ARPE-19) cells adhered and proliferated to form a monolayer on the scaffolds. The progress of culture matured on the scaffolds was demonstrated by immunofluorescence (actin, ZO-1, and Na+ /K+ -ATPase) and Western blot analysis of the respective proteins. The RPE cells cultured on EHDJ-printed scaffolds with 20 μm pores presented higher permeability, higher transepithelial potential difference, and higher expression level of Na+ /K+ -ATPase than those cultured on Transwell inserts. These findings suggest that the EHDJ printing can fabricate scaffolds that mimic Bruch’s membrane by promoting maturation of RPE cells to form a polarized and functional monolayered epithelium with potential as an in vitro model for studying retinal diseases and treatment methods

Keywords

Ultrathin scaffolds

Electrohydrodynamic jet printing

Polycaprolactone

Retinal pigment epithelium

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