Ejection Behavior of Commercial Hydrogels with Potential Use for Biomedical Applications via In Situ Bioprinting

For personalized treatments, including soft tissues repair, the use of in situ bioprinting is of increased interest. Many soft tissues, such as sphincters, have poorly known mechanical properties and a complex structure, with limited options for a medical practitioner to assess where the injections should be made and how much should be injected. The rate of injection and its variation have a direct implication on pain sensation for patients, but post-injection efficacy largely depends on the ability of the hydrogel to adapt to local loads and displacements, keeping the 3D structure compliant to the surrounding tissues. Such a method is known as ‘in situ bioprinting’. There are, however, limited data regarding hydrogels’ functionalities for such applications, and many commercial hydrogels, as medical devices, are used off-label. This study aims to introduce an innovative, robust, and reliable approach for evaluating the ejection-related mechanical properties of various commercial hydrogels. The ejectability of six clinically approved hydrogels was assessed through their rheological properties, characterized by measuring apparent viscosity using a mechanical testing device in a novel setup combined with the dynamic syringe pump analysis (for a pre-set constant ejection rate). It was shown that a well-established power-law approximation offers a straightforward, less computationally intensive approach than more complex models that attempt to account for viscosity, shear rate, and wall slip. It assesses hydrogel performance within an actual system, including the syringe and nozzle, rather than just characterizing the material in isolation, thus making it particularly valuable for predicting how gels will behave under real conditions. This method can be adapted for specific clinical bioprinting applications, including sphincter repair, lipoatrophy correction, or deep dermal/transdermal targets, optimizing speed, flow rate, and applied force.