Advancing bovine in vitro fertilization through 3D printing: the effect of the 3D printed materials

Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

Bioengineering and Biotechnology

Alessia Colosimo¹  Barbara Barboni¹  Costanza Cimini¹  Nicola Bernabò²  Luca Valbonetti²  Ramses Belda-Perez³  Bianca Maria Colosimo⁴  Silvia Santoni⁴  Pilar Coy⁵  Jon Romero-Aguirregomezcorta⁵  Sonia Heras⁵ 

[1] Department of Biosciences and Technology for Food, Agriculture and Environment, University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy;Department of Biosciences and Technology for Food, Agriculture and Environment, University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy;Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (CNRIBBC/EMMA/Infrafrontier/IMPC), National Research Council, Rome, Italy;Department of Biosciences and Technology for Food, Agriculture and Environment, University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy;Physiology of Reproduction Group, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, International Excellence Campus for Higher Education and Research (Campus Mare Nostrum), University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain;Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy;Physiology of Reproduction Group, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, International Excellence Campus for Higher Education and Research (Campus Mare Nostrum), University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain;

关键词: IVF;    bovine;    embryo culture;    biomaterials;    PCL;    PEGDA;    PLA;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fbioe.2023.1260886

 received in 2023-07-18, accepted in 2023-09-15,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Nowadays there is an increasing demand for assisted reproductive technologies due to the growth of infertility problems. Naturally, fertilization occurs in the oviduct, where the oviductal epithelial cells (OECs) secrete many molecules that affect the embryo’s metabolism and protect it from oxidative stress. When the OECs are grown in 3D culture systems, they maintain a great part of their functional characteristics, making them an excellent model for in vitro fertilization (IVF) studies. In this work, we aimed to evaluate the suitability of different 3D-printing processes in conjunction with the corresponding set of commercially available biomaterials: extrusion-based processing using polylactic acid (PLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) and stereolithography or digital-light processing using polyethylene-glycol-diacrylate (PEGDA) with different stiffness (PEGDA500, PEGDA200, PEGDA PhotoInk). All the 3D-printed scaffolds were used to support IVF process in a bovine embryo assay. Following fertilization, embryo development and quality were assessed in terms of cleavage, blastocyst rate at days 7 and 8, total cell number (TCN), inner cell mass/trophectoderm ratio (ICN/TE), and apoptotic cell ratio (ACR). We found a detrimental effect on cleavage and blastocyst rates when the IVF was performed on any medium conditioned by most of the materials available for digital-light processing (PEGDA200, PEGDA500). The observed negative effect could be possibly due to some leaked compound used to print and stabilize the scaffolds, which was not so evident however with PEGDA PhotoInk. On the other hand, all the extrusion-based processable materials did not cause any detrimental effect on cleavage or blastocyst rates. The principal component analysis reveals that embryos produced in presence of 3D-printed scaffolds produced via extrusion exhibit the highest similarity with the control embryos considering cleavage, blastocyst rates, TCN, ICN/TE and ACR per embryo. Conversely, all the photo-cross linkable materials or medium conditioned by PLA, lead to the highest dissimilarities. Since the use of PCL scaffolds, as well as its conditioned medium, bring to embryos that are more similar to the control group. Our results suggest that extrusion-based 3D printing of PCL could be the best option to be used for new IVF devices, possibly including the support of OECs, to enhance bovine embryo development.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Belda-Perez, Heras, Cimini, Romero-Aguirregomezcorta, Valbonetti, Colosimo, Colosimo, Santoni, Barboni, Bernabò and Coy.