Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Centre, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
Small. 2023 Oct;19(42):e2301163. doi: 10.1002/smll.202301163. Epub 2023 Jun 2.
Microvascular networks are essential for the efficient transport of nutrients, waste products, and drugs throughout the body. Wire-templating is an accessible method for generating laboratory models of these blood vessel networks, but it has difficulty fabricating microchannels with diameters of ten microns and narrower, a requirement for modeling human capillaries. This study describes a suite of surface modification techniques to selectively control the interactions amongst wires, hydrogels, and world-to-chip interfaces. This wire templating method enables the fabrication of perfusable hydrogel-based rounded cross-section capillary-scale networks whose diameters controllably narrow at bifurcations down to 6.1 ± 0.3 microns in diameter. Due to its low cost, accessibility, and compatibility with a wide range of common hydrogels of tunable stiffnesses such as collagen, this technique may increase the fidelity of experimental models of capillary networks for the study of human health and disease.
微血管网络对于营养物质、废物产物和药物在全身的有效运输至关重要。线模板法是一种可用于生成这些血管网络实验室模型的方法，但它难以制造直径为十微米及更细的微通道，这是建模人毛细血管的要求。本研究描述了一系列表面改性技术，用于选择性地控制线、水凝胶和世界到芯片界面之间的相互作用。这种线模板法能够制造可灌注的基于水凝胶的圆形横截面毛细血管尺度网络，其直径在分叉处可控地缩小至 6.1±0.3 微米。由于其低成本、易获得性以及与广泛的可调节刚度的常见水凝胶（如胶原蛋白）的兼容性，该技术可能会提高毛细血管网络实验模型的逼真度，以研究人类健康和疾病。
