| Summary: | Endothelial cells, EC, are the cell type closest to the blood stream in vessel walls. These cells can affect the origin of atherosclerosis, plaques clogging the vessels. The behaviour of EC is affected by neighbouring smooth muscle cells and shear stress from the blood flow. The aim with this thesis was to fabricate a structure for an aorta-on-a-chip that can be used to study these two parameters and their influence on EC and vascular diseases. Previous research using a two-channel system resulted in leakage and low viability of the muscle cells. A three-channel system has therefore been made to include a middle channel with the muscle cells incorporated in a gel. Cell medium is flowed in the outer channels to provide the cells with nutrition. The flow in the channel with EC has been calculated to correspond to the shear stress in an aorta. Membranes of polyethylene terephthalate and polycarbonate were used to divide the channels and both were shown to be compatible with EC. Different bonding procedures were investigated to manufacture leakage-free chips. In the study, adhesive bonding clogged the channels and the parameters for thermal bonding of COC, cyclic olefin copolymer, were not fully optimised. This made chemical bonding with layers of PDMS, polydimethylsiloxane, the best alternative. APTES, (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane, treatment in addition to plasma treatment on the surfaces improved the bonding strength. Polycarbonate membranes got better results in the bonding tests than polyethylene terephthalate. The resulting aorta-on-a-chip was therefore successfully fabricated in PDMS and polycarbonate membranes using plasma and APTES treatment for bonding.
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