Bio-Inspired Screwed Conduits from the Microfluidic Rope-Coiling Effect for Microvessels and Bronchioles
Rui Liu,
Jiahui Guo,
Bin Kong,
Yunru Yu,
Yuanjin Zhao,
Lingyun Sun
Affiliations
Rui Liu
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Institute of Translational Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210002, China
Jiahui Guo
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Bin Kong
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Institute of Translational Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210002, China
Yunru Yu
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Yuanjin Zhao
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Institute of Translational Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210002, China; State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China; Corresponding authors.
Lingyun Sun
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Institute of Translational Medicine, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210002, China; Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China; Corresponding authors.
Tubular microfibers have recently attracted extensive interest for applications in tissue engineering. However, the fabrication of tubular fibers with intricate hierarchical structures remains a major challenge. Here, we present a novel one-step microfluidic spinning method to generate bio-inspired screwed conduits (BSCs). Based on the microfluidic rope-coiling effect, a viscous hydrogel precursor is first curved into a helix stream in the channel, and then consecutively packed as a hollow structured stream and gelated into a screwed conduit (SC) via ionic and covalent crosslinking. By taking advantage of the excellent fluid-controlling ability of microfluidics, various tubes with diverse structures are fabricated via simple control over fluid velocities and multiple microfluidic device designs. The perfusability and permeability results, as well as the encapsulation and culture of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), human pulmonary alveolar epithelial cells (HPAs), and myogenic cells (C2C12), demonstrate that these SCs have good perfusability and permeability and the ability to induce the formation of functional biostructures. These features support the uniqueness and potential applications of these BSCs as biomimetic blood vessels and bronchiole tissues in combination with tissue microstructures, with likely application possibilities in biomedical engineering.
