Fabrication and characterization of photopatterned 3D cell-laden grafts

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) cell-laden grafts are useful tools as models for drug screening and mechanistic study in developmental biology. Such grafts are typically fabricated on a flat substrate, released to be freestanding, and incubated in a cell-culture media. In this study, we examined the effect of cell culture conditions on the thickness of cell-laden grafts. We found that floating culture increased the thickness of the grafts, which was attributed to the relief of restraining forces from the substrate that resulted in the growth of the graft. Due to the limited sample size and large variation in the thickness of individual grafts, however, further investigation is required to conclude the reason for the change in the thickness. This research potentially leads to a simple approach for the fabrication of 3D cell-laden grafts with larger thickness than traditional pseudo-two-dimensional (2D) grafts created by bioprinting.