Abstract
This paper presents a flexible microscaffold to facilitate the fabrication of different cellular constructs which could be used as the building units for the construction of a larger tissue with a complex structure. The device consists of a 6×6 array of membrane actuators, made of Polydimethylsiloxane. The superiority of membrane actuators helps preventing the leakage of culture medium and allows for the formation of various temporary scaffolds. In biological test, NIH3T3 cells were seeded on the scaffold provided. The positive pressure applied to membrane actuators enables the formation of the scaffold for construction of hole array-patterned and round flat cell sheets while the negative pressure applied enables the scaffold for construction of spherical cellular aggregates. The results after 2-day cultivation show that the micropatterned cell sheet has a thickness of about 100 μ m and a hole diameter of about 200 μ m. In addition, the round flat cell sheets have a diameter of about 623.87 μ m, and the spherical aggregates have a diameter of about 280 μ m. These suggest the possibility of using our device to prepare many different cellular constructs with more complex structures in future biological applications.
Highlights
The need of engineered organs in current clinical therapy has been widely recognized over the past decade
Micropatterned cell sheet The scaffold for the construction of the micropatterned cell sheet is shown in Figure 8(a) where all actuators were activated to reach a displacement of about 600 μm
This cell sheet has a pattern of microhole array, and thickness of about 100 μm
Summary
The need of engineered organs in current clinical therapy has been widely recognized over the past decade. The transplantation of healthy donated organs may reduce the death toll of such patients, the reality is that not enough persons donate organs. To solve this issue, the replacement of damaged human organ with an engineered organ, prepared by tissue engineering approach, has been popularly addressed since mass production of these engineered organs would certainly help to meet the high demand of transplant organs. Due to the complexity of an engineered organ that could mimic functions of a human organ, the fabrication by means of direct assembly, like when manufacturing a car, has caught our attention. An engineered kidney could be fabricated by assembling many engineered parts such as the ureter, capsule, cortex, and medulla.
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