Hollow fiber integrated microfluidic platforms for in vitro Co-culture of multiple cell types.
This study demonstrates a rapid prototyping approach for fabricating and integrating porous hollow fibers (HFs) into microfluidic device. Integration of HF can enhance mass transfer and recapitulate tubular shapes for tissue-engineered environments. We demonstrate the integration of single or multiple HFs, which can give the users the flexibility to control the total surface area for tissue development. We also present three microfluidic designs to enable different co-culture conditions such as the ability to co-culture multiple cell types simultaneously on a flat and tubular surface, or inside the lumen of multiple HFs. Additionally, we introduce a pressurized cell seeding process that can allow the cells to uniformly adhere on the inner surface of HFs without losing their viabilities. Co-cultures of lung epithelial cells and microvascular endothelial cells were demonstrated on the different platforms for at least five days. Overall, these platforms provide new opportunities for co-culturing of multiple cell types in a single device to reconstruct native tissue micro-environment for biomedical and tissue engineering research.
Bioscience Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.
Jen-Huang
JH
Huang
Bioscience Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.
Jennifer F
JF
Harris
Analytics, Intelligence and Technology Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA. pulakn@lanl.gov.
Pulak
P
Nath
Physics Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA. rashi@lanl.gov.
Rashi
R
Iyer
D002460:Cell Line; D018920:Coculture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D018511:Systems Integration
Cell seeding; Co-culture; Hollow fiber; Microfluidic device; Tissue engineering