Dipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia, PolitoBIOMed Lab, Politecnico di Torino, C.so Duca degli Abruzzi 24, Turin 10129, Italy.
Center for Sustainable Futures @PolitoIstituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Livorno 60, Turin 10144, Italy.
Biomater Sci. 2023 Apr 11;11(8):2950-2959. doi: 10.1039/d3bm00152k.
Nowadays, most of the microfluidic devices for biological applications are fabricated with only few well-established materials. Among these, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is the most used and known. However, it has many limitations, like the operator dependent and time-consuming manufacturing technique and the high molecule retention. TEGORad or Acrylate PDMS is an acrylate polydimethylsiloxane copolymer that can be 3D printed through Digital Light Processing (DLP), a technology that can boast reduction of waste products and the possibility of low cost and rapid manufacturing of complex components. Here, we developed 3D printed Acrylate PDMS-based devices for cell culture and drug testing. Our study shows that Acrylate PDMS can sustain cell growth of lung and skin epithelium, both of great interest for drug testing, without causing any genotoxic effect. Moreover, flow experiments with a drug-like solution (Rhodamine 6G) show that Acrylate PDMS drug retention is negligible unlike the high signal shown by PDMS. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that this acrylate resin can be an excellent alternative to PDMS to design stretchable platforms for cell culture and drug testing.
如今，大多数用于生物应用的微流控设备仅使用少数几种成熟的材料制造。在这些材料中，聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）是使用最广泛、最知名的材料。然而，它存在许多局限性，例如操作人员依赖性强、制造技术耗时且高分子保留率高。TEGORad 或丙烯酸盐 PDMS 是一种丙烯酸盐聚二甲基硅氧烷共聚物，可通过数字光处理（DLP）进行 3D 打印，该技术可以减少浪费，并具有低成本和快速制造复杂组件的可能性。在这里，我们开发了基于 3D 打印丙烯酸盐 PDMS 的细胞培养和药物测试设备。我们的研究表明，丙烯酸盐 PDMS 可以维持肺和皮肤上皮细胞的生长，这两者对于药物测试都非常重要，而不会产生任何遗传毒性作用。此外，用类似药物的溶液（若丹明 6G）进行的流动实验表明，与 PDMS 显示的高信号相比，丙烯酸盐 PDMS 的药物保留率可以忽略不计。总之，该研究表明，这种丙烯酸盐树脂可以替代 PDMS，用于设计用于细胞培养和药物测试的可拉伸平台。
