Centrifugal imprinting during vitrification (CIV) of collagen hydrogel for highly biocompatible 3D membrane scaffold

Abstract

This paper reports on a novel micro imprinting process "CIV" to realize 3-D vascular scaffold made of natural biological polymer. The process is performed by gradual vacuum evaporation of hydrogel on a template under centrifugal force ~500G. This process realizes 3D membrane micro/nano structures of extra cellular matrix polymer (e.g. collagen, elastin) with natural self-assembled fibrous structures kept as same as in vivo. The fabricated structure is highly suitable for cell culture scaffold in tissue engineering since no organic solvent or cross-linking reagent is used in CIV process.