Abstract
Here we propose a novel electrochemical lithography methodology for fabricating calcium-alginate hydrogels having controlled shapes. We separated the chambers for Ca2+ production and gel formation with alginate with a semipermeable membrane. Ca2+ formed in the production chamber permeated through the membrane to fabricate a gel structure on the membrane in the gel formation chamber. When the calcium-alginate hydrogels were modified with collagen, HepG2 cells proliferated on the hydrogels. These results show that electrochemical hydrogel lithography is useful for cell culture.
Highlights
Several cell culture methods have recently been developed for tissue engineering
A culture surface modified with a thermo-responsive polymer has been used to collect cells in the form of sheets by reducing the temperature from 37 ◦ C to 20 ◦ C, and the cell sheets have been used for tissue engineering [1]
The 1% w/v CaCO3 -dispersed solution was placed in the Ca2+ production chamber, and the sodium alginate solution was added to the gel formation chamber
Summary
Several cell culture methods have recently been developed for tissue engineering. For example, a culture surface modified with a thermo-responsive polymer has been used to collect cells in the form of sheets by reducing the temperature from 37 ◦ C to 20 ◦ C, and the cell sheets have been used for tissue engineering [1]. Alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) modified with RGD peptides were used to collect cells as a sheet via reductive desorption of the SAMs [4,5] All these methods have been used to fabricate 3D tissue organs for tissue engineering. An electrochemical method for the formation of calcium-alginate hydrogels has been reported [8,9,10,11,12,13] In this method, electrodes are inserted into a sodium alginate solution containing CaCO3 particles. Materials 2016, 9, 744 damaged during electrochemical acidification [12,13]; in addition, carrying out electrodeposition only on the electrodes limits the applicability of the method to bioengineering To solve these problems, we developed an indirect method called electrochemical hydrogel lithography for the electrodeposition of calcium-alginate hydrogels. The present method can provide 3D hydrogels appropriate for fabricating organs on chips, since 3D hydrogels can mimic in vivo environments
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