Department of Complex Tissue Regeneration, MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine, Maastricht University, Maastricht, 6229ER, The Netherlands.
Institute of Nanotechnology, National Research Council (CNR-NANOTEC), Campus Ecotekne, via Monteroni, Lecce, 73100, Italy.
Small. 2020 Aug;16(34):e2002258. doi: 10.1002/smll.202002258. Epub 2020 Jul 12.
Despite numerous advances in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, monitoring the formation of tissue regeneration and its metabolic variations during culture is still a challenge and mostly limited to bulk volumetric assays. Here, a simple method of adding capsules-based optical sensors in cell-seeded 3D scaffolds is presented and the potential of these sensors to monitor the pH changes in space and time during cell growth is demonstrated. It is shown that the pH decreased over time in the 3D scaffolds, with a more prominent decrease at the edges of the scaffolds. Moreover, the pH change is higher in 3D scaffolds compared to monolayered 2D cell cultures. The results suggest that this system, composed by capsules-based optical sensors and 3D scaffolds with predefined geometry and pore architecture network, can be a suitable platform for monitoring pH variations during 3D cell growth and tissue formation. This is particularly relevant for the investigation of 3D cellular microenvironment alterations occurring both during physiological processes, such as tissue regeneration, and pathological processes, such as cancer evolution.
尽管组织工程和再生医学领域取得了众多进展，但在培养过程中监测组织再生的形成及其代谢变化仍然是一个挑战，而且大多局限于批量体积测定。在这里，提出了一种在细胞接种的 3D 支架中添加基于胶囊的光学传感器的简单方法，并证明了这些传感器在监测细胞生长过程中空间和时间的 pH 变化方面的潜力。结果表明，3D 支架中的 pH 值随时间推移而降低，支架边缘处的降低更为明显。此外，与单层 2D 细胞培养相比，3D 支架中的 pH 值变化更高。结果表明，由基于胶囊的光学传感器和具有预定几何形状和孔结构网络的 3D 支架组成的该系统可以成为监测 3D 细胞生长和组织形成过程中 pH 值变化的合适平台。这对于研究生理过程（如组织再生）和病理过程（如癌症演变）中发生的 3D 细胞微环境变化特别重要。
