Fabricating scaffolds by microfluidics |
| |
| Authors: | Kuo-yuan Chung Narayan Chandra Mishra Chen-chi Wang Feng-hui Lin and Keng-hui Lin |
| |
| Institution: | 1.Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan;2.Department of Paper Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Saharanpur 247 001, India;3.Tzu Chi General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan and Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100, Taiwan;4.Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100, Taiwan;5.Institute of Physics and Research Center for Applied Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan |
| |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time the technique to using microfluidics to fabricate tissue engineering scaffolds with uniform pore sizes. We investigate both the bubble generation of the microfluidic device and the application of foam as a tissue engineering scaffold. Our microfluidic device consists of two concentric tapered channels, which are made by micropipettes. Nitrogen gas and aqueous alginate solution with Pluronic® F127 surfactant are pumped through the inner and the outer channels, respectively. We observe rich dynamic patterns of bubbles encapsulated in the liquid droplets. The size of the bubble depends linearly on the gas pressure and inversely on the liquid flow rate. In addition, monodisperse bubbles self-assemble into crystalline structures. The liquid crystalline foams are further processed into open-cell solid foams. The novel foam gel was used as a scaffold to culture chondrocytes. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
