ハイドロゲルの局所加熱を用いた多層細胞構造体の作製

Abstract

We propose a new method to fabricate channels inside cell structures for tissue engineering applications. A local melting of cell embedded hydrogel is employed to make channels inside cell structures. The fabricated channels can be used as vascular-like networks to supply nutrition and oxygen to cells, or patterning another types of cells. Microelectrodes were prepared as heaters on a glass substrate by photolithography techniques. Channel patterning were conducted using the microelectrodes. The channel width and height are controlled by the heating time when the applied voltage to the microelectrodes is constant. The multi-layered channel fabrication was achieved by repeating melting-filling hydrogel. The results indicate that the proposed method can be used to making vascular-like networks inside cell structures to construct in vitro 3D cell systems.