3d bioprinting of biomimetic constructs with spatially controlled microenvironment for rotator cuff augmentation

Statement of Purpose: Rotator cuff tendon tears are one of the leading causes of debilitating shoulder pain in the United States. The use of grafts has been studied in the past for reconstruction of such non-repairable tears or to augment repairable tears of large size. Unfortunately, current treatment strategies, including auto-, allo-and xenografts as well as synthetic implants, fail to restore the functional, structural, and biochemical properties of repaired rotator cuff to those of native tissue, with overall failure rate between 38% and 65%. Rotator cuff tendon exhibits distinct transition zones from the musculotendinous region to tendon to fibrocartilage to bone. Each zone has a distinct degree of vascularization. Current augmentation options fail to mimic these transition zones, due to their homogeneous architectural structure. In this study, we combined 3D bioprinting technique with textile technique to generate biomimetic constructs with spatial control of vascularization for massive rotator cuff repair in a rabbit model.