Inkjet printing of viable human dental follicle stem cells

Abstract

Inkjet printing technology has the potential to be used for seeding of viable cells for tissue engineering approaches. For this reason, a piezoelectrically actuated, drop-on-demand inkjet printing system was applied to deliver viable human dental follicle stem cells (hDFSC) of sizes of about 15 μm up to 20 μm in diameter. The purpose of these investigations was to verify the stability of the printing process and to evaluate cell viability post printing. Using a Nanoplotter 2.1 (Gesim, Germany) equipped with the piezoelectric printhead NanoTip HV (Gesim, Germany), a concentration of 6.6 ×106 cells ml-1 in DMEM with 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) could be dispensed. The piezoelectric printhead has a nominal droplet volume of ~ 400 pl and was set to a voltage of 75 V and a pulse of 50 μs while dosing 50 000 droplets over a time of 100 seconds. The volume and trajectory of the droplet were checked by a stroboscope test right before and after the printing process. It was found that the droplet volume decreases significantly by 35% during printing process, while the trajectory of the droplets remains stable with only an insignificant number of degrees deviation from the vertical line. It is highly probable that some cell sedimentations or agglomerations affect the printing performance. The cell viability post printing was assessed by using the Trypan Blue dye exclusion test. The printing process was found to have no significant influence on cell survival. In conclusion, drop-on-demand inkjet printing can be a potent tool for the seeding of viable cells.