Experimental conditions for efficient retention of vascular endothelial cells on channel wall using lipid bubbles and acoustic interference

Abstract

In order to fabricate multi-layered artificial blood vessels, bubble-surrounded cells were retained on the wall in a flow channel using the phase sweeping of interferential acoustic field. First, spatial distribution of acoustic intensity was defined to evaluate retention performance. Comparing between various acoustic fields, we found appropriate acoustic intensity for retention of the cells. Next, phase sweeping of the acoustic field was conducted to increase the retained area of the cells by varying sweep velocity, sweep direction, and the amplitudes of sound pressure. As the result, an interferential acoustic field with a balanced sound pressures of 200 kPa-pp at a sweep velocity of 100 mm s−1, which was 10 times higher than the flow, and the sweep direction against the flow, obtained a retained area 1.6 times larger than that without sweeping. We will apply the conditions based on the results for the future 3D fabrication of artificial blood vessels.