Experimental Study on Compatibility of Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells in Collagen–Alginate Bioink for 3D Printing

Abstract

This paper reports an experimental study on the compatibility of human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells in a collagen–alginate bioink. The compatibility was assessed using the culture well method with three bioink compositions prepared from a 10% alginate solution and neutralized TeloCol-10 mg/mL collagen stock solution. Cell viability, quantified by (live cell count—dead cell count)/live cell count within the HBE cell-laden hydrogel, was evaluated using the live/dead assay method from Day 0 to Day 6. Experimental results demonstrated that the collagen–alginate 4:1 bioink composition exhibited the highest cell viability on Day 6 (85%), outperforming the collagen–alginate 1:4 bioink composition and the alginate bioink composition, which showed cell viability of 75% and 45%, respectively. Additionally, the live cell count was highest for the collagen–alginate 4:1 bioink composition on Day 0, a trend that persisted through Days 1 to 6, underscoring its superior performance in maintaining cell viability and promoting cell proliferation. These findings show that the compatibility of HBE cells with the collagen–alginate 4:1 bioink composition was higher compared with the other two bioink compositions.