Synthesis of a photocurable acrylated poly(ethylene glycol)- co -poly(xylitol sebacate) copolymers hydrogel 3D printing ink for tissue engineering

a quick and facile photopolymerization process. Changing the acrylation ratio of the PEXS-A hydrogel has an impact on its crosslinking density, mechanical properties and degradation rate, thus highlighting PEXS-A tunability. PEXS-A could be employed as ink as demonstrated by the 3D printing of a 30-layers cubic grid with high structural integrity. Furthermore, 3T3 fibroblast cells encapsulated into PEXS-A during photocrosslinking maintain a viability of 93.76% after seven days, which showed the good biocompatibility of this novel hydrogel. These results indicate that PEXS-A hydrogel could have multiple applications including as 3D printing ink and as tissue engineering scaffold.