Kelum Elvitigala

Osaka University | Handai · Department of Materials Engineering Science

Extrusion-based 3D bioprinting has revolutionised tissue engineering, enabling complex biostructure manufacturing. However, extrusion imposes substantial shear stress on cells, compromising cell viability. Predicting and optimising cell viability remains challenging due to rheological modelling complexity and cell-type dependency. To address these...

The development of hydrogels that allow vascular endothelial cells to form capillary-like networks is critical for advancing tissue engineering and drug discovery. In this study, we developed hydrogels composed of phenolated hyaluronic acid (HA-Ph) with an average molecular weight of 490–159 kDa via sonication in an aqueous solution. These hydrogel...

In vitro network formation by endothelial cells serves as a fundamental model for studies aimed at understanding angiogenesis. The morphogenesis of these cells to form a network is intricately regulated by the mechanical and biochemical properties of the extracellular matrix. Here the effects of modulating these properties in hydrogels derived from...

Adeno‐associated viral (AAV) vectors play a significant role in gene therapy, yet the typical delivery methods, like systemic and local AAV injections, often lead to unintended off‐target distribution and tissue damage due to injection. In this study, we propose a localized delivery approach for AAV vectors utilizing electrospun gelatin nanofiber m...

Cell sheets have immense potential for medical and pharmaceutical applications including tissue regeneration, drug testing, and disease modelling. In this study, composite hydrogels were prepared from a mixture of phenolated hyaluronic acid (HA-Ph) and gelatin (Gelatin-Ph), with a controlled degree of polymer crosslinking and degradation, to fabric...

Herein, we report the hydrogelation of sugar beet pectin (SBP) via visible light-mediated photocrosslinking and its applications in extrusion-based 3D bioprinting. Rapid hydrogelation (<15 s) was achieved by applying 405 nm visible light to an SBP solution in the presence of tris(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) chloride hexahydrate ([Ru(bpy)3]2+) and sodi...

The study of the capillary-like network formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in vitro is important for understanding the factors that promote or inhibit angiogenesis. Here, we report the behavior of HUVECs on the composite hydrogels containing hyaluronic acid (HA) and gelatin with different degrees of degradation, inducing t...

Engineering skeletal muscle tissue in vitro is important to study the mechanism of myogenesis, which is crucial for regenerating muscle cells. The physicochemical properties of the cellular microenvironment are known to govern various cell behaviours. Yet, most studies utilised synthetic materials to model the extracellular matrix that suffers from...

The cell cycle is known to be regulated by features such as the mechanical properties of the surrounding environment and interaction of cells with the adhering substrates. Here, we investigated the possibility of regulating cell-cycle progression of the cells on gelatin/hyaluronic acid composite hydrogels obtained through hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-m...

Research on induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cell has attracted attention due to their remarkable progress in regenerative medicine. Cost and quality are two main factors to be considered when using iPS cells in biological applications in a large scale. In this study, the suspension culture of iPS cells was numerically simulated in a cylindrical tank...