3D printed gelatin scaffold with improved shape fidelity and cytocompatibility by using antheraea pernyi silk fibroin nanofibers

Gelatin (G) is a commonly used natural biomaterial owing to its good biocompatibility and easy availability. However, using pure gelatin as a bioink can barely achieve an ideal shape fidelity in 3D printing. In this study, Antheraea pernyi silk fibroin nanofibers (ASFNFs) with arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) peptide and partial natural silk structure are extracted and combined with pure gelatin bioink to simultaneously improve the shape fidelity and cytocompatibility of corresponding 3D printed scaffold. Results show that the optimum printing temperature is 30 °C for these bioinks. The printed filaments using 16G/4ASFNFs bioink (16wt% gelatin and 4wt% ASFNFs) demonstrate better morphology and larger pore size than those printed by pure gelatin bioink (20G, 20wt% gelatin), thus successfully improve the shape fidelity and porosity of the 3D printed scaffold. The 16G/4ASFNFs scaffold also demonstrate higher swelling ratio and faster degradation rate than the pure gelatin scaffold. Moreover, the cell viability and proliferation ability of Schwann cells cultured on the 16G/4ASFNFs scaffold are significantly superior than those cultured on the pure 20G scaffold. The ASFNFs enhanced 16G/4ASFNFs scaffold reported here are expected to be a candidate with excellent potential for biomedical applications.