Abstract
This study demonstrated the fabrication of alginate microfibers using a modular microfluidic system for magnetic-responsive controlled drug release and cell culture. A novel two-dimensional fluid-focusing technique with multi-inlets and junctions was used to spatiotemporally control the continuous laminar flow of alginate solutions. The diameter of the manufactured microfibers, which ranged from 211 µm to 364 µm, could be well controlled by changing the flow rate of the continuous phase. While the model drug, diclofenac, was encapsulated into microfibers, the drug release profile exhibited the characteristic of a proper and steady release. Furthermore, the diclofenac release kinetics from the magnetic iron oxide-loaded microfibers could be controlled externally, allowing for a rapid drug release by applying a magnetic force. In addition, the successful culture of glioblastoma multiforme cells in the microfibers demonstrated a good structural integrity and environment to grow cells that could be applied in drug screening for targeting cancer cells. The proposed microfluidic system has the advantages of ease of fabrication, simplicity, and a fast and low-cost process that is capable of generating functional microfibers with the potential for biomedical applications, such as drug controlled release and cell culture.
Highlights
Most drug delivery carriers are micro-/nanoparticles [1,2,3]
Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) cells used in the present study were obtained from the Bioresource Collection and Research Center (BCRC) in Taiwan
Principle of the formation of microfibers Based on the external crosslinking process of alginate [33], we created a microfluidic system to control the spontaneous selfassembly of alginate microfibers
Summary
Most drug delivery carriers are micro-/nanoparticles [1,2,3]. These spherical dosage forms have been studied extensively for their drug release profiles, but some limitations still exist. They are expelled from the target site and that they have a high initial burst release rate [4,5]. Wet spinning, and electrospinning are common methods to produce microfibers [10,11,12,13]. Microfluidic technology is simple, cost-effective, is compatible with biological materials and an alternative method for producing uniform micro-/nanofibers [14,16,17,18]
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