Flow-based Organization of Perfusable Soft Material in Three Dimensions

• Main Author: Leng, Lian
• Other Authors: Guenther, Axel
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: microfluidics; multilayer; 3D; soft material; vascularized; perfusable; tunable; tissue engineering; 0548
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/24259

This thesis presents a microfluidic strategy for the in-flow definition of a 3D soft material with a tunable and perfusable microstructure. The strategy was enabled by a microfluidic device containing up to fifteen layers that were individually patterned in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Each layer contained an array of ten to thirty equidistantly spaced microchannels. Two miscible fluids (aqueous solutions of alginate and CaCl2) were used as working fluids and were introduced into the device via separate inlets and distributed on chip to form a complex fluid at the exit. The fluid microstructure was tuned by altering the flow rates of the working fluids. Upon solidification of alginate in the presence of calcium chloride, the created microstructure was retained and a soft material with a tunable microstructure was formed. The produced material was subsequently perfused using the same microfluidic architecture. The demonstrated strategy potentially offers applications in materials science and regenerative medicine.