Paper

Paper Name    Layer-by-layer micromolding of natural biopolymer scaffolds with intrinsic microfluidic networks
Author    Jiankang He, Ye Wang et al.
Publication/Completion Time    2013-01-14
Magazine Name    Biofabrication(影响因子:4.289)
Vol   
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Paper description    Three-dimensional (3D) microfluidic network plays an important role in engineering thick organs. However, most of the existing methods were limited to mechanically robust synthetic biomaterials and only planar or simple microfluidic networks have been incorporated into soft natural biopolymers. Here we presented an automatic layer-by-layer micromolding strategy to reproducibly fabricate 3D microfluidic porous scaffolds directly from the aqueous solution of soft natural biopolymers. Process parameters such as liquid volume for each layer and contact displacement were investigated to produce a structurally stable 3D microfluidic scaffold. Microscopic characterization demonstrated that the microfluidic channels were interconnected in 3D and successfully functioned as a convective pathway to transport a polymer solution. Endothelial cells grew relatively well in the porous microfluidic channels. It is envisioned that this method could provide an alternative way to reproducibly build complex 3D microfluidic networks into extracellular matrix-like scaffolds for the fabrication of soft vascularized organs.