Description:

Gelatin methacrylate, commonly known as GelMA, which can be UV cross-linked to form hydrogels for biological 3D printing and tissue engineering. It has been used for endothelial cell morphogenesis, cardiomyocytes, epidermal tissue, injectable tissue constructs, bone differentiation, and cartilage regeneration etc. It can also form microspheres or bio-capsules for drug delivery and cell encapsulation. GelMA has been filtered but has not been sterilized.

Application:

How to dissolve GelMA in aqueous media for 3D cell culture or 3D biofabrication

Warm up aqueous media to 37 or 50 oC.
Place GelMA into aqueous media (PBS or other aqueous media) at a desired concentration (10, 20, or 30% w/v).
Stir GelMA media at 200 – 500 rpm at 37 - 50 oC for 1-3 h until GelMA samples are dissolved completely.
Centrifuge them at 5000 – 8000 rpm at 37 - 50 oC for 5 min and then filter them through sterile 0.22/0.45 µm syringe filters (with PES membrane, 25 mm diameter) at 50 oC (please warm the syringes and filters as well before filtration) to sterilize GelMA solutions.
Mix cells with warm sterile GelMA solutions containing 0.1 - 0.5% LAP or I2959 in the biosafety hood at a desired cell concentration of 100,000 - 1,000,000 cells/mL.
Photo-crosslink cell-contained GelMA solutions via exposure to light (365 nm for I2959 or 405 nm for LAP) with an intensity of 0.5 - 50 mW/cm2 for 0.5 - 5 min.
Transfer cell-laden GelMA gels into tissue culture flasks with each well containing enough culture media.