Microfluidics and Bioprinting Technologies for 3D Vascularized Tissue

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "B2: Biofabrication and Tissue Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 September 2021) | Viewed by 20302

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
EMBL Barcelona, C/ Dr. Aiguader, 88, PRBB Building, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: vascular biology; tissue engineering; disease modeling; microfluidics; cell mechanics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is a pleasure to invite you to contribute an article to the Special Issue entitled “Microfluidics and Bioprinting Technologies for 3D Vascularized Tissue”.

Functional tissues and organs require a continuous supply of nutrients and oxygen, as well as waste removal. Blood and lymphatic vessels are the regulators of these vital processes and are necessary for initiating the earliest stages of development and maintaining homeostasis throughout adulthood, and they also play a major role in the response to injury and infection. There have been many advances in 3D tissue engineering and organoid development over the last few decades, and it has become increasingly clear that the vascularization of these multicellular systems is necessary for their use as functionally relevant tissues and to reflect the true nature of human systems. Recent efforts have been made toward generating perfusable in vitro vasculature using microfluidics and bioprinting technologies. These new techniques are coming ever closer to generating functional tissues and have so far been used to perfuse relevant immune, hematopoietic, and tumor cells in de novo tissues-on-a-chip. The vascularization of engineered tissues and organs will lead to novel insights into complex tissue behavior and disease mechanisms and may bring us closer to patient-specific tissue analogs, which will significantly benefit the fields of regenerative and personalized medicine.

For this Special Issue, I invite you to submit your latest relevant work on tissue and organoid vascularization. I very much look forward to receiving your contribution.

Dr. Kristina Haase
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • microfluidics
  • bioprinting
  • vascular biology
  • angiogenesis
  • vasculogenesis
  • tissue engineering
  • organ-on-a-chip
  • biomedical devices
  • disease modeling

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 8133 KiB  
Article
A Microfluidic Platform for Cavitation-Enhanced Drug Delivery
by Giulia Grisanti, Davide Caprini, Giorgia Sinibaldi, Chiara Scognamiglio, Giulia Silvani, Giovanna Peruzzi and Carlo Massimo Casciola
Micromachines 2021, 12(6), 658; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12060658 - 3 Jun 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4145
Abstract
An endothelial-lined blood vessel model is obtained in a PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) microfluidic system, where vascular endothelial cells are grown under physiological shear stress, allowing -like maturation. This experimental model is employed for enhanced drug delivery studies, aimed at characterising the increase in endothelial [...] Read more.
An endothelial-lined blood vessel model is obtained in a PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) microfluidic system, where vascular endothelial cells are grown under physiological shear stress, allowing -like maturation. This experimental model is employed for enhanced drug delivery studies, aimed at characterising the increase in endothelial permeability upon microbubble-enhanced ultrasound-induced (USMB) cavitation. We developed a multi-step protocol to couple the optical and the acoustic set-ups, thanks to a 3D-printed insonation chamber, provided with direct optical access and a support for the US transducer. Cavitation-induced interendothelial gap opening is then analysed using a customised code that quantifies gap area and the relative statistics. We show that exposure to US in presence of microbubbles significantly increases endothelial permeability and that tissue integrity completely recovers within 45 min upon insonation. This protocol, along with the versatility of the microfluidic platform, allows to quantitatively characterise cavitation-induced events for its potential employment in clinics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidics and Bioprinting Technologies for 3D Vascularized Tissue)
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9 pages, 2117 KiB  
Article
Applicability of Artificial Vascularized Liver Tissue to Proteomic Analysis
by Nobuhito Mori and Yasuyuki S. Kida
Micromachines 2021, 12(4), 418; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12040418 - 11 Apr 2021
Viewed by 2584
Abstract
Artificial vascularized tubular liver tissue has perfusable blood vessels that allow fluid access to the tissue interior, enabling the injection of drugs and collection of metabolites, which are valuable for drug discovery. It is amenable to standard evaluation methods, such as paraffin-embedded sectioning, [...] Read more.
Artificial vascularized tubular liver tissue has perfusable blood vessels that allow fluid access to the tissue interior, enabling the injection of drugs and collection of metabolites, which are valuable for drug discovery. It is amenable to standard evaluation methods, such as paraffin-embedded sectioning, qPCR, and RNA sequencing, which makes it easy to implement into existing research processes. However, the application of tissues vascularized by the self-assembly of cells, (including tubular liver tissue, has not yet been tested in comprehensive proteomic analysis relevant for drug discovery. Here, we established a method to efficiently separate cells from the tubular liver tissue by adding a pipetting step during collagenase treatment. By using this method, we succeeded in obtaining a sufficient number of cells for the proteomic analysis. In addition, to validate this approach, we compared the cells separated from the tissue with those grown in 2D culture, focusing on the proteins related to drug metabolism. We found that the levels of proteins involved in metabolic phases II and III were slightly higher in the tubular liver tissue than those in the 2D cell culture. Taken together, our suggested method demonstrates the applicability of tubular liver tissue to the proteomic analysis in drug assays. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidics and Bioprinting Technologies for 3D Vascularized Tissue)
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13 pages, 5620 KiB  
Article
PLGA Nanofiber/PDMS Microporous Composite Membrane-Sandwiched Microchip for Drug Testing
by Wei Li, Xindi Sun, Bing Ji, Xingyuan Yang, Bingpu Zhou, Zhanjun Lu and Xinghua Gao
Micromachines 2020, 11(12), 1054; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11121054 - 28 Nov 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3924
Abstract
Lung-on-a-chip devices could provide new strategies for a biomimetic lung cell microenvironment and construction of lung disease models in vitro, and are expected to greatly promote the development of drug evaluation, toxicological detection, and disease model building. In this study, we developed a [...] Read more.
Lung-on-a-chip devices could provide new strategies for a biomimetic lung cell microenvironment and construction of lung disease models in vitro, and are expected to greatly promote the development of drug evaluation, toxicological detection, and disease model building. In this study, we developed a novel poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanofiber/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microporous composite membrane-sandwiched lung-on-a-chip to perform anti-tumor drug testing. The composite membrane was characterized, and the results showed that it was permeable to molecules and thus could be used to study small-molecule drug diffusion. In addition, the microchip could apply perfusion fluids to simulate blood flow under extremely low fluid shear stress, and could also simulate the spherical-like shape of the alveoli by deformation of the composite membrane. Using this chip, we evaluated the anti-tumor drug efficacy of gefitinib in two kinds of non-small cell lung cancer cells, the lung adenocarcinoma NCI-H1650 cell line and the large cell lung cancer NCI-H460 cell line. We further probed the resistance of NCI-H460 cells to gefitinib under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. The established composite membrane-sandwiched lung chip can simulate more biochemical and biophysical factors in the lung physiological and pathological microenvironment, and it has important applications in the personalized treatment of lung tumors. It is expected to play a potential role in clinical diagnosis and drug screening. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidics and Bioprinting Technologies for 3D Vascularized Tissue)
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Review

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14 pages, 2946 KiB  
Review
Modelling the Human Placental Interface In Vitro—A Review
by Marta Cherubini, Scott Erickson and Kristina Haase
Micromachines 2021, 12(8), 884; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12080884 - 27 Jul 2021
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 8618
Abstract
Acting as the primary link between mother and fetus, the placenta is involved in regulating nutrient, oxygen, and waste exchange; thus, healthy placental development is crucial for a successful pregnancy. In line with the increasing demands of the fetus, the placenta evolves throughout [...] Read more.
Acting as the primary link between mother and fetus, the placenta is involved in regulating nutrient, oxygen, and waste exchange; thus, healthy placental development is crucial for a successful pregnancy. In line with the increasing demands of the fetus, the placenta evolves throughout pregnancy, making it a particularly difficult organ to study. Research into placental development and dysfunction poses a unique scientific challenge due to ethical constraints and the differences in morphology and function that exist between species. Recently, there have been increased efforts towards generating in vitro models of the human placenta. Advancements in the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), microfluidics, and bioprinting have each contributed to the development of new models, which can be designed to closely match physiological in vivo conditions. By including relevant placental cell types and control over the microenvironment, these new in vitro models promise to reveal clues to the pathogenesis of placental dysfunction and facilitate drug testing across the maternal-fetal interface. In this minireview, we aim to highlight current in vitro placental models and their applications in the study of disease and discuss future avenues for these in vitro models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidics and Bioprinting Technologies for 3D Vascularized Tissue)
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