Fig. 1.

Triggered micropore-forming (TMF) bioprinting. (a) TMF bioprinting of a cell-laden bioink (dark blue) into a scaffold of defined architecture (feature size P). (b) Porous viscoelastic hydrogel (PVH) formed within a phase-separation inducing matrix (PSIM; light blue), which supports the extruded bioink and supplies a phase separation inducer (grey triangles) to form cell-sized pores (pore size p) at elevated temperature. (c) Viscoelastic response of the PVH is modulated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a crosslink spacer. The viscoelastic response is manifested with stress relaxation under a constant strain. (d) Fluorescent image of a hierarchical porous scaffold; scale bar 2 mm. (e) Confocal image of the micropores within the bioprinted scaffolds labeled with rhodamine-B (red); scale bar 30 µm.