Microfabricated Poly (ethylene glycol) Based Hydrogels for Microvascular TissueEngineering Applications
[摘要] Shortages in donor organs and the lack of therapeutic treatment options toaddress tissue loss and end-organ failure has led to intense research into tissueengineering based therapeutics. Cellular, tissue, and organ level therapeuticshold the potential to shift clinical paradigms and drastically improve healthcareoutcomes. However, to date the only successful tissue engineering therapeuticshave been limited to thin and avascular tissues such as skin, cartilage and thebladder. This is primarily due to the absence of a perfusable vasculature totransport nutrients and waste during in vitro tissue development and inadequatehost-implant vascular integration upon implantation. In this thesis we set out todevelop hydrogel microfabrication technologies to (1) improve in vitro masstransport, (2) integrate self-assembling microvascular networks withmicrofabricated channels and (3) incorporate and support functional parenchymalcellular elements within in vitro constructs.Application of microfabrication technologies to PEG hydrogels requiresthat fabrication schemes are cell compatible, robust for handling and imaging andmost importantly allow for precise micron level control of both fluid perfusion andhydrogel structure fabrication. Herein we report multiple cell compatible1microfabrication schemes that employ multilayer replica molding andphotolithographic hydrogel fabrication techniques. Systems designed with thesetechniques resulted in improved in vitro mass transport, integration of selfassembledmicrovascular networks with fabricated structures and the ability topattern multilayer heterogeneous hydrogel structures that contain and supportmultiple cellular elements.The progress reported herein has broad applicability towards thedevelopment of biomaterials with highly biomimetic structural-functionalcharacteristics. More specifically these hydrogel microfabrication technologieshold the promise to improve the therapeutic potential of tissue engineeredconstructs and provide more biologically applicable pre-clinical tissue models.2
[发布日期] [发布机构] Rice University
[效力级别] Biomedical [学科分类]
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