Experimental and numerical study on a novel microfluidic method to fabricate curcumin loaded calcium alginate microfibres

Abstract

In this research, we first performed a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of the effects of the inlet solution's concentration and channel height to produce microfibres in a microfluidic system by COMSOL 5.3 to find the optimum ratio of sheath to core flow rate. It proved that the ratio of sheath to core flow rate should considered more than 1 to have jet regime in the microchannel. The results show that the level of Ca2+ diffusion in an alginate inlet solution has a direct and reverse correlation with the initial sheath solution's concentration and initial core solution's concentration, respectively. Secondly, the response surface methodology (RSM) in Design Expert 7.0.0, was used to investigate the effects of alginate and calcium chloride flow rates on the average microfibres' diameter. We found that the best value of Ca2+ concentration in the core flow to produce fine appropriate microfibres is 150 mol/m3. Then, we developed a microchip using lithography, in which a silicon wafer was etched vertically instead of using a SU‐8 photo resist on glass, causing a significant improvement in the quality of channels and mould. The SEM images revealed low roughness of fabricated micro‐channels, which was eye‐catching. Eventually, the possibility of using the microfibres as polymeric carriers for hydrophobic drugs was investigated, and then fluorescent microscopic images of the loaded fibres indicated that the drug is well‐loaded onto the fibres: the results are promising.

(Bio)manufactured Solutions for Treatment of Bone Defects with an Emphasis on US‐FDA Regulatory Science Perspective

“…[142][143][144][145][146][147] UV light might be harmful for some sensitive biological agents and cells. Alternatively, chemically and physically cross-linked microfibers have been generated using coflow systems from different materials, including PLGA, [148][149][150] alginate, [151][152][153][154] chitosan, [155,156] polystyrene (PS), [157] and silk. [158] In these cases, the most commonly used sheath flow is either glycerin or calcium chloride.…”

“…Input materials, flow rates, and concentration of the fluids are the common microfluidics process parameters to control the product characteristics. [154,158] There are various fabrication approaches to setup a MFF platform such as stainless steel needles, [159,160] pulled glass tubes, [161] and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microdevices using replica molding and standard soft-lithography. [154,162] Low material consumption in MFF method makes it environment-friendly and cost-effective.…”

“…[154,158] There are various fabrication approaches to setup a MFF platform such as stainless steel needles, [159,160] pulled glass tubes, [161] and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microdevices using replica molding and standard soft-lithography. [154,162] Low material consumption in MFF method makes it environment-friendly and cost-effective. The extreme control on scaffold porosity and pore interconnection in this method is advantageous.…”

“…[ 154,158 ] There are various fabrication approaches to setup a MFF platform such as stainless steel needles, [ 159,160 ] pulled glass tubes, [ 161 ] and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microdevices using replica molding and standard soft‐lithography. [ 154,162 ]…”

Approximating Scaffold Printability Utilizing Computational Methods

“…Hydrogels provide three-dimensional (3D) support for cellular growth and tissue formation similar to native extracellular matrix (ECM) and are widely utilized to study cellular proliferation, migration, differentiation, and interaction [12]- [14]. In general, hydrogels are crosslinked networks of hydrophilic polymers that swell in water [13], [15], [16]. One of the most common natural hydrogels in biomedical applications and bioprinting is gelatin, which is derived through collagen hydrolysis.…”