Koo Kyo-In, Lenshof Andreas, Huong Le Thi, Laurell Thomas
Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 44610, Korea.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Lund University, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden.
Micromachines (Basel). 2020 Dec 22;12(1):3. doi: 10.3390/mi12010003.
In the field of engineered organ and drug development, three-dimensional network-structured tissue has been a long-sought goal. This paper presents a direct hydrogel extrusion process exposed to an ultrasound standing wave that aligns fibroblast cells to form a network structure. The frequency-shifted (2 MHz to 4 MHz) ultrasound actuation of a 400-micrometer square-shaped glass capillary that was continuously perfused by fibroblast cells suspended in sodium alginate generated a hydrogel string, with the fibroblasts aligned in single or quadruple streams. In the transition from the one-cell stream to the four-cell streams, the aligned fibroblast cells were continuously interconnected in the form of a branch and a junction. The ultrasound-exposed fibroblast cells displayed over 95% viability up to day 10 in culture medium without any significant difference from the unexposed fibroblast cells. This acoustofluidic method will be further applied to create a vascularized network by replacing fibroblast cells with human umbilical vein endothelial cells.
在工程化器官和药物开发领域，三维网络结构组织一直是长期追求的目标。本文介绍了一种直接水凝胶挤出工艺，该工艺暴露于超声驻波中，可使成纤维细胞排列形成网络结构。对一根400微米见方的玻璃毛细管进行频率偏移（从2兆赫到4兆赫）的超声驱动，该毛细管由悬浮在海藻酸钠中的成纤维细胞持续灌注，从而产生了一条水凝胶线，其中的成纤维细胞排列成单股或四股流。在从单股细胞流到四股细胞流的转变过程中，排列好的成纤维细胞以分支和连接的形式不断相互连接。在培养基中培养至第10天，经超声处理的成纤维细胞活力超过95%，与未处理的成纤维细胞相比无显著差异。这种声流体方法将进一步应用于通过用人脐静脉内皮细胞替代成纤维细胞来创建血管化网络。
