Ricerc@Sapienza

Background and study aims
Several studies have demonstrated the superiority of proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) in resolving erosive gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD). However, this first line of treatment can fail to control symptoms in around 30% of cases, especially in the presence of non-erosive GORD. In situations where the first line of treatment fails, there is a lack of concordance regarding the best strategy to apply. This study presents a systematic review of the trials which have tested second-line treatments after PPI failure.

One promising strategy to reconstruct osteochondral defects relies on 3D bioprinted three-zonal structures comprised of hyaline cartilage, calcified cartilage, and subchondral bone. So far, several studies have pursued the regeneration of either hyaline cartilage or bone in vitro while – despite its key role in the osteochondral region – only few of them have targeted the calcified layer.

Nowadays, 3D bioprinting technologies are rapidly emerging in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as effective tools enabling the fabrication of advanced tissue constructs that can recapitulate in vitro organ/tissue functions. Selecting the best strategy for bioink deposition is often challenging and time consuming process, as bioink properties-in the first instance, rheological and gelation-strongly influence the suitable paradigms for its deposition.

In this study, we present an innovative strategy to reinforce 3D printed hydrogel constructs for cartilage tissue engineering by formulating composite bioinks containing alginate and short submicron polylactide (PLA) fibers.Wedemonstrate that Young’s modulus obtained for pristine alginate constructs (6.9?±?1.7 kPa) can be increased threefold (up to 25.1?±?3.8 kPa) with the addition of PLA short fibers.

3D bioprinting is an emerging field that can be described as a robotic additive biofabrication technology that has the potential to build tissues or organs. In general, bioprinting uses a computer controlled printing device to accurately deposit cells and biomaterials into precise architectures with the goal of creating on demand organized multicellular tissue structures and eventually intra-organ vascular networks. The latter, in turn, will promote the host-integration of the engineered tissue/organ in situ once implanted. Existing biofabrication techniques still lay behind this goal.