The ability of embryonic stem (ES) cells to self-renew indefinitely and to differentiate into multiple cell lineages hold promise for advances in modeling disease progression, screening drugs and treating diseases. To realize these potentials, it is imperative to study self-assembly in an embryonic microenvironment, as this may increase our understanding of ES cell maintenance and differentiation. In this study, we synthesized an array of one-dimensional alginate gel microstrands and aqueous microstrands through an SU-8 filter device by means of capillary action. Furthermore, we investigated self-assembly behaviors and differentiation potentials of mouse ES cells cultured in microstrands of varying diameters. We found that microstrands with an aqueous interior facilitated high density cell culture and formed compact microtissue structures, while microstrands with gelled interiors promote smaller cell-aggregate structures. In particular, we noticed that ES cells collected from one dimensional aqueous microstrands favored the differentiation towards cell lineages of endoderm and mesoderm, whereas those from gelled microstrands preferred to differentiate into ectoderm and mesoderm lineages. In addition to providing a “liquid-like” tubular microenvironment to understand one dimensional self-assembly process of ES cells, this alginate hydrogel microstrand system also offers an alternative way to manipulate the stem cell fate-decision using bioengineered microenvironments.
This paper describes the influence of diamond nanoparticles on the modification of the thermal properties of benzocyclobutene (BCB) which is used for three‐dimensional (3D) wafer‐to‐wafer integration. Hybrid nanocomposites containing mixtures of 0.5–10 weight% (wt.%) diamond nanoparticles [average particle size (APS): 10 nm] in BCB were analyzed using thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and flash diffusivity techniques. Measurements show that the addition of nanoparticles significantly increases the decomposition temperature. Diffusivity measurements and subsequent calculations of thermal conductivity suggest that the inclusion of nanoparticles only slightly improves the conductivity.
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