Tissue-Derived Insoluble Type I and Type II Collagen Inks for 3D Printing of Fibrillar Collagen Scaffolds

Tissue-derived insoluble type I and type II collagen inks enabled direct extrusion 3D printing without a sacrificial support bath, yielding dimensionally stable scaffolds after ammonium hydroxide fibrillization.

• Why it matters: Printable collagen systems often depend on soluble collagen, support baths, added polymers, or photochemical crosslinking, limiting simpler fabrication routes for collagen-based scaffolds.
• What they did: Type I collagen from bovine Achilles tendon and type II collagen from bovine articular cartilage were formulated to shear-thin with predominantly elastic behavior, then printed as grid scaffolds (25–50% infill) and ~20*20*20 mm multilayers.
• The result: After ammonium hydroxide treatment and lyophilization, both scaffold types showed comparable porous morphologies and supported abundant viable human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells, with spindle-shaped cells on type I and rounded cells on type II.

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