Correlating rheology and printing performance of fiber-reinforced bioinks to assess predictive modelling for biofabrication

Abstract A crucial property for the evaluation of bioinks, besides biocompatibility, is printability, which determined by resolution and shape fidelity. Recently, fiber reinforcement was used to overcome rheological limitations introduce biomimetic structuring. This study provides a systematic approach evaluate printability reinforced hydrogels. Alginate Pluronic hydrogels were blended with cellulose nanofibers (CeNF) polycaprolactone (PCL) microfibers. SEM imaging revealed fiber-induced structural changes. Oscillatory experiments showed that addition fragments significantly altered complex viscosity. customized setup utilized determine strut spreading behavior in real extrusion printing process. Strikingly, data displayed excellent correlation viscoelastic model-based predictions. CeNF increased fidelity both hydrogels, while PCL microfibers viscosity but resulted time dependent loss integrity Pluronic. The results emphasize need complement shear-rheological analysis bioinks print-related analytical tools. Graphic abstract