IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. 2019 Oct;13(5):1063-1074. doi: 10.1109/TBCAS.2019.2937744. Epub 2019 Aug 28.
Seeding cells on a planar substrate is the first step to construct artificial tissues in vitro. Cells should be organized into a pattern similar to native tissues and cultured on a favorable substrate to facilitate desirable tissue ingrowth. In this study, a microchip system is designed and fabricated to form cells into a specific pattern on different substrates. The system consists of a microchip with a dot-electrode array for cell trapping and patterning and two motorized platforms for providing relative motions between the microchip and the substrate. AC voltage is supplied to the selected electrodes by using a programmable micro control unit to control relays connected to the dot-electrodes. Nonuniform electric fields for cell manipulation are formed via negative dielectrophoresis (n-DEP). Experiments were conducted to create different patterns by using yeast cells. The effects of different experimental parameters and material properties on the patterning efficiency were evaluated and analyzed. Mechanisms to remove abundant cells surrounding the constructed patterns were also examined. Results show that the microchip system could successfully create cell patterns on different substrates. The use of calcium chloride (CaCl ) enhanced the cell adhesiveness on the substrate. The proposed n-DEP patterning technique offers a new method for constructing artificial tissues with high flexibility on cell patterning and selecting substrate to suit application needs.
在平面基底上接种细胞是体外构建人工组织的第一步。细胞应被组织成类似于天然组织的图案，并在有利的基底上培养，以促进理想的组织内生长。在这项研究中，设计并制造了一种微芯片系统，以在不同的基底上将细胞形成特定的图案。该系统由一个带有用于细胞捕获和图案形成的点电极阵列的微芯片和两个用于提供微芯片和基底之间相对运动的电动平台组成。可编程微控制器用于向选定的电极提供交流电压，以控制连接到点电极的继电器。通过负介电泳（n-DEP）形成用于细胞操作的非均匀电场。进行了实验以使用酵母细胞创建不同的图案。评估和分析了不同实验参数和材料特性对图案形成效率的影响。还检查了去除构建图案周围多余细胞的机制。结果表明，微芯片系统可以成功地在不同的基底上创建细胞图案。使用氯化钙（CaCl ）增强了基底上细胞的粘附性。所提出的 n-DEP 图案形成技术为具有高度灵活性的细胞图案形成和选择适合应用需求的基底的人工组织构建提供了一种新方法。
