4D Printing at the Microscale

Spiegel, Christoph A.; Hippler, Marc; Münchinger, Alexander; Bastmeyer, Martin; Barner‐Kowollik, Christopher; Wegener, Martin; Blasco, Eva

doi:10.1002/adfm.201907615

Cited by 169 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…Thus, no additional covalent cross-linker is needed to form stable 3D microstructures. This aspect circumvents the typical challenge in printing stimuli-responsive 3D hydrogels, namely, that more cross-links are required to stabilize the network, which hinder its response at the same time ( 16 ). In our system, we were able to increase the number of cross-links and the functionality simultaneously.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical stimulation of single cells by reversible host-guest interactions in 3D microscaffolds

et al. 2020

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Many essential cellular processes are regulated by mechanical properties of their microenvironment. Here, we introduce stimuli-responsive composite scaffolds fabricated by three-dimensional (3D) laser lithography to simultaneously stretch large numbers of single cells in tailored 3D microenvironments. The key material is a stimuli-responsive photoresist containing cross-links formed by noncovalent, directional interactions between β-cyclodextrin (host) and adamantane (guest). This allows reversible actuation under physiological conditions by application of soluble competitive guests. Cells adhering in these scaffolds build up initial traction forces of ~80 nN. After application of an equibiaxial stretch of up to 25%, cells remodel their actin cytoskeleton, double their traction forces, and equilibrate at a new dynamic set point within 30 min. When the stretch is released, traction forces gradually decrease until the initial set point is retrieved. Pharmacological inhibition or knockout of nonmuscle myosin 2A prevents these adjustments, suggesting that cellular tensional homeostasis strongly depends on functional myosin motors.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical stimulation of single cells by reversible host-guest interactions in 3D microscaffolds

et al. 2020

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“…The microhelices are magnetically driven to an immotile sperm and captured tail-first [30]. With the advent of bottom-up self-assembly, 3D and 4D bioprinting [75][76][77][78], it may be possible to print artificial spermbots in one step in the future.…”

Section: Creating Biohybrid and Synthetic Spermbots-technical Challenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sperm Cell Driven Microrobots—Emerging Opportunities and Challenges for Biologically Inspired Robotic Design

et al. 2020

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With the advent of small-scale robotics, several exciting new applications like Targeted Drug Delivery, single cell manipulation and so forth, are being discussed. However, some challenges remain to be overcome before any such technology becomes medically usable; among which propulsion and biocompatibility are the main challenges. Propulsion at micro-scale where the Reynolds number is very low is difficult. To overcome this, nature has developed flagella which have evolved over millions of years to work as a micromotor. Among the microscopic cells that exhibit this mode of propulsion, sperm cells are considered to be fast paced. Here, we give a brief review of the state-of-the-art of Spermbots—a new class of microrobots created by coupling sperm cells to mechanical loads. Spermbots utilize the flagellar movement of the sperm cells for propulsion and as such do not require any toxic fuel in their environment. They are also naturally biocompatible and show considerable speed of motion thereby giving us an option to overcome the two challenges of propulsion and biocompatibility. The coupling mechanisms of physical load to the sperm cells are discussed along with the advantages and challenges associated with the spermbot. A few most promising applications of spermbots are also discussed in detail. A brief discussion of the future outlook of this extremely promising category of microrobots is given at the end.

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“…Direct laser writing (DLW) has been greatly developed for high‐quality chiral structures formation and dynamic 4D printing. [ 18 ] The capillarity‐assisted method is anticipated to further broaden the applicability of DLW technique. The manner of building chiral microstructures using individual filaments eliminates the negative influence of voxel superposition and self‐smoothing effect, [ 19 ] resulting in high‐quality and reliable microassemblies.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Chiral Assemblies of Laser‐Printed Micropillars Directed by Asymmetrical Capillary Force

Hu¹,

Yuan²,

Liu³

et al. 2020

Advanced Materials

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Artificial microstructures composed of chiral building blocks are of great significance in the fields of optics and mechanics. Here, it is shown that highly ordered chiral structures can be spontaneously assembled by a meniscus‐directed capillary force arising in an evaporating liquid. The chirality is facilitated by rationally breaking the intrinsic symmetry in the unit cells through cooperative control of the geometry and spatial topology of the micropillars. The interfacial dynamics of the assembly process are studied to show that the sequential self‐organization of the micropillars is influenced by the geometries, stiffness, and spatial arrangements. A diversity of chiral assemblies with controlled handedness is yielded by varying the pillar number, height, cross‐section, laser power, and spatial topology. Lastly, the differential reflectance of light carrying opposite orbital angular momentums on the assembled chiral architectures are investigated, showcasing their potential in the field of chiral photonics concerning enantioselective response and exceptional optical functions.

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4D Printing at the Microscale

Cited by 169 publications

References 88 publications

Mechanical stimulation of single cells by reversible host-guest interactions in 3D microscaffolds

Mechanical stimulation of single cells by reversible host-guest interactions in 3D microscaffolds

Sperm Cell Driven Microrobots—Emerging Opportunities and Challenges for Biologically Inspired Robotic Design

Chiral Assemblies of Laser‐Printed Micropillars Directed by Asymmetrical Capillary Force

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