Simultaneous microfluidic spinning of multiple strands of submicron fiber for the production of free-standing porous membranes for biological application

Abstract

Microfibers produced using electrospinning and microfluidics-based technologies have been developed as a powerful tool in tissue engineering applications such as drug delivery and scaffolds. The applications of these fibers, however, have been limited because of the hazardous solvents used to make them, difficulties in controlling the pore sizes of their membrane forms, and downscaling the size of the fiber. Nevertheless, extending the use of these fibers, for example in the production of a free-standing porous membrane appropriate for cell-based research, is highly needed for tissue engineering, organ-on-a-chip, and drug delivery research and applications. Here, we fabricated a free-standing porous membrane by using a novel method that involved simultaneously spinning multiple strands of submicron-thick 'noodle-like' fibers. In addition to the novelty of the single noodle fiber in overcoming the size-reducing limitations of conventional microfluidic spinning methods, these fibers can hence form the units of 'noodle membranes' whose pores have sizes that the convention electrospinning method cannot achieve. We confirmed the potential of the noodle membrane to serve as a free-standing porous membrane in two simple experiments. Also, we found that noodle membranes have an advantage in loading different amounts of different materials in itself that it was also shown to be of use as a new type of scaffold for complex tissue regeneration. Therefore, the proposed noodle membrane can be an effective tool in tissue engineering applications and biological studies.

The use of microfluidic spinning fiber as an ophthalmology suture showing the good anastomotic strength control

“…Among various fiber-form biomaterials 17 – 21 , microfluidic spinning microfibers have been widely used in biomedical applications such as tissue engineering 22 – 25 and wound dressing 26 due to their extraordinary features such as their ability to guide cell growth 27 – 29 , their large surface-to-volume ratios 30 – 32 , and the various ways their surfaces can be modified. Among the diverse approaches for fabricating microfibers, microfluidics has recently attracted much attention because of its advantages in providing simple, rapid, and spatiotemporal control over the composition of the material along the microfiber, and the ability of this method to encapsulate a cell in the microfiber 22 , 24 , 33 , 34 . However, the importance of the mechanical properties of resulting fibers exposed to physiological conditions has been overlooked.…”

Organ‐Level Functional 3D Tissue Constructs with Complex Compartments and their Preclinical Applications

“…Cells have been induced to aggregate on microchips and other devices, [1][2][3][4][5] and self-aggregated tissues have been formed in engineered gels. [1,[6][7][8] Furthermore, microfibers have been used to encapsulate as well as aggregate the cells, [9][10][11] and sheets of cells have been stacked into larger-scale tissues. [12] Additionally, several types of 3D and bioprinting techniques have been used to fabricate point-, line-, and space-based scaled-up 3D tissue constructs.…”

“…(Figure 1k-n) [17,23,25,55] Until now, various types of 2D structures have been fabricated for cell culture, and investigators have been able to produce free-standing tissues, which has led to the creation of planar-type tissues. [11,12,56] One of the key factors for the 2D-to-3D strategy is the precise stacking of the 2D materials into 3D tissue constructs. There are various methods for such stacking, including placing 2D layers on one another (Figure 1k) using thermoresponsive materials [12,55] and artificially creating acoustic pressure differences to arrange the cells in planes (Figure 1l).…”

pH-Triggered Silk Fibroin/Alginate Structures Fabricated in Aqueous Two-Phase System

“…Alginate is a polysaccharide typically extracted from brown seaweed. It has many attractive properties such as biocompatibility and biodegradability and has been extensively used in biomedical fields, including tissue engineering, , cell encapsulation, , drug delivery, and biofabrication. − Alginate is a linear copolymer containing blocks of (1,4)-linked β- d -mannuronate (M) and α- l -guluronate (G) residues . Because alginate can be cross-linked into a hydrogel simply by using divalent ions like calcium (Ca 2+ ) or barium (Ba 2+ ), cells can be encapsulated into alginate hydrogels without any damage. ,, …”