Abstract
A current challenge in 3D bioprinting of skin equivalents is to recreate the distinct basal and suprabasal layers and promote their direct interactions. Such a structural arrangement is essential to establish 3D stratified epidermis disease models, such as for the autoimmune skin disease pemphigus vulgaris (PV), which targets the cell–cell junctions at the interface of the basal and suprabasal layers. Inspired by epithelial regeneration in wound healing, a method that combines 3D bioprinting and spatially guided self‐reorganization of keratinocytes is developed to recapture the fine structural hierarchy that lies in the deep layers of the epidermis. Herein, keratinocyte‐laden fibrin hydrogels are bioprinted to create geographical cues, guiding dynamic self‐reorganization of cells through collective migration, keratinocyte differentiation, and vertical expansion. This process results in a region of self‐organized multilayers (SOMs) that contain the basal‐to‐suprabasal transition, marked by the expressed levels of different types of keratins that indicate differentiation. Finally, the reconstructed skin tissue as an in vitro platform to study the pathogenic effects of PV is demonstrated, illuminating a significant difference in cell–cell junction dissociation induced by PV antibodies in different epidermis layers, which indicates their applications in the preclinical test of possible therapies.
A stepwise biofabrication method that combines 3D bioprinting and postprint cell self‐organization is developed for epidermal reconstruction. Skin‐cell‐laden tissue architectures are created to display the multilayered structures seen in vivo. These 3D models recapitulate the basal‐to‐suprabasal transition, providing an in vitro tool to mimic the pathological microenvironment of the disease pemphigus vulgaris.