Abstract
Three-dimensional organs and tissues can be constructed using hydrogels as support matrices for cells. For the assembly of these gels, chemical and physical reactions that induce gluing should be induced locally in target areas without causing cell damage. Herein, we present a novel electrochemical strategy for gluing hydrogel fibers. In this strategy, a microelectrode electrochemically generated HClO or Ca2+, and these chemicals were used to crosslink chitosan–alginate fibers fabricated using interfacial polyelectrolyte complexation. Further, human umbilical vein endothelial cells were incorporated into the fibers, and two such fibers were glued together to construct “+”-shaped hydrogels. After gluing, the hydrogels were embedded in Matrigel and cultured for several days. The cells spread and proliferated along the fibers, indicating that the electrochemical glue was not toxic toward the cells. This is the first report on the use of electrochemical glue for the assembly of hydrogel pieces containing cells. Based on our results, the electrochemical gluing method has promising applications in tissue engineering and the development of organs on a chip.
Highlights
Hydrogel fibers have been widely investigated because 3D hydrogels can be prepared by knitting the hydrogel fibers [6]
Several methods have been proposed for fabricating hydrogel fibers, such as the microfluidic method [6] and the use of sacrificial sugar templates [7]
In this study, beaded fibers were used because our focus was on the proof-ofconcept of the electrochemical glue
Summary
Hydrogels have received increased attention for bioapplications because of their useful properties, such as their high water content, high permeability, biocompatibility, and shape retention. Hydrogels have been widely used for the biofabrication of threedimensional (3D) tissue models, and 3D bioprinters have been used for the fabrication of complex-shaped hydrogels [1] In this approach, hydrogels containing cells are extruded from a single syringe, and the syringe is moved programmatically using an XYZ stage. Hydrogels containing cells are extruded from a single syringe, and the syringe is moved programmatically using an XYZ stage In another approach, small units of hydrogels, such as fibers, beads, sheets, and blocks, are fabricated using microfluidic systems [2,3] and photolithographic technologies [4,5]. Small units of hydrogels, such as fibers, beads, sheets, and blocks, are fabricated using microfluidic systems [2,3] and photolithographic technologies [4,5] After fabrication, these units are assembled to construct more complex-shaped hydrogels. Hydrogel fibers have been fabricated using interfacial polyelectrolyte complexation (IPC) [8–11] and utilized for cell culture [12]
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