50 / 2018-06-29 15:25:59

Fabrication of Low-concentration Cell-laden GelMA Microspheres via Electrohydrodynamic Technology

Gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA); Electrohydrodynamic (EHD); GelMA microsphere; Cell encapsulation; Cellular model

全体主题 > ii. Biomaterials and formulation of novel “bioinks” for tissue-specific applications

Recently, the issue of living cells encapsulation in gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) microsphere has aroused great concern for its features of permitting the diffusion of gas, nutrients, and wastes smoothly as well as preserving the biomimetic microenvironments for cellular functionalization. However, it is a great challenge to directly fabricate GelMA microsphere due to its low viscosity. Here, we first introduce the technology of electrohydrodynamic (EHD) into the fabricating process of low concentration pure GelMA cellular microspheres without any other additional materials which are employed to adjust the solution viscosity. The diameters of the droplets under different parameters such as the diameter of nozzle, voltage, gas pressure were measured. By analyzing the measured data, we divided the electrospray process into two different states: stable single droplets (minimum diameter ~500µm) and splitting droplets (minimum diameter ~100µm). At last, HUVECs, BMSCs and MDA-MB-231s, chosen as three representatives of three main types of cells: somatic cells, stem cells and tumor cells, were encapsulated into low concentration pure GelMA microspheres for 3 days culturing. Both of them contained a high viability and presented cell spreading in the microspheres. We believe that the EHD manufacturing process with low cost, high efficiency, excellent effectiveness for pure GelMA microspheres can promoting further development in the field of tissue engineering, stem cell differentiation and cancer research as splendid cellular models.