Fluid and cell behaviors along a 3D printed alginate/gelatin/fibrin channel

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) cell manipulation is available with the integration of microfluidic technology and rapid prototyping techniques. High-Fidelity (Hi-Fi) constructs hold enormous therapeutic potential for organ manufacturing and regenerative medicine. In the present paper we introduced a quasi-three-dimensional (Q3D) model with parallel biocompatible alginate/gelatin/fibrin hurdles. The behaviors of fluids and cells along the microfluidic channels with various widths were studied. Cells inside the newly designed microfluidic channels attached and grew well. Morphological changes of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) in both two-dimensional (2D) and 3D milieu were found on the printed constructs. Endothelialization occurred with the co-cultures of ADSCs and hepatocytes. This study provides insights into the interactions among fluids, cells and biomaterials, the behaviors of fluids and cells along the microfluidic channels, and the applications of Q3D techniques.

An Interpenetrating Alginate/Gelatin Network for Three-Dimensional (3D) Cell Cultures and Organ Bioprinting

“…When a large amount of gelatin molecules is added, the gaps between neighbour crosslinked alginate chains can be enlarged. The un-crosslinked gelatin molecules can be regarded as porogenic agents when they dissolve into culture medium during the later in vitro 3D cultures [45][46][47][48][49][50]. When the un-crosslinked alginate molecules dissolve out, they can also be regarded as porogenic agents.…”

3D Bioprinting Technologies for Hard Tissue and Organ Engineering

“…In the 3D organ printing field, extrusion-based technologies have become increasingly important based on the following reasons: (1) compared with inkjet- and laser-based printing technologies, it is much easier for the hardware and software to be updated; (2) new printers are relatively ready to be designed; (3) multiple cell types can be obviously convenient incorporated; (4) large scale-up structures can be achieved simply through adjusting the printing parameters; (5) costs are relatively low; and (6) using combined multi-nozzle 3D printers, it is possible to overcome nearly all the problems that are encountered by tissue engineering in organ manufacturing experienced in the past (Table 1) [116,117,118,119,120,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143,144]. …”

“…Subsequently, this group has been the leader towards the goal of complex organ manufacturing with a great of significant breakthroughs over the last decade [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,118,119,120,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143,144]. For example, it was the first time that cells encapsulated in biodegradable hydrogels (such as gelatin-based hydrogels) were used to print large scale-up 3D structures [69]; as well as the multiple steps of polymer crosslinking and cocktail stem cell engagement in a 3D printed structure [70,71].…”

Tissue engineering with gellan gum

“…Lozano et al applied this technique in the fabrication of a multilayered cortical tissue mimic from RGD-peptide modified GG 38 . Although extrusion based techniques are generally of lower resolution than ink-jetting, this reactive printing approach could conceivably be applied at high resolutions using microfluidic approaches, which have been successfully applied in for the patterning of other polysaccharide materials [129][130][131][132][133] . Nevertheless, reactive extrusion printing represents a fast and efficient means of forming large, cell laden and self-supporting GG hydrogel scaffolds.…”