Viscoelastic lithography for fabricating self-organizing soft micro-honeycomb structures with ultra-high aspect ratios.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27157977.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms11269 and PMC identifier 4865738.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
High-aspect ratio micro- and nano-structures have been used for the production of a variety of applications. In this paper, we describe a simple and cost-effective approach to fabricate an arrayed microarchitecture with an ultra-high aspect ratio using soft materials. The shapes and sizes of the honeycomb structure can be easily modulated by changing the dimensions and position of the base mould pattern and the pressure. The honeycomb structure is used to prepare a drug delivery patch and a microwell array to form cell spheroids without cell loss. The honeycomb structures prepared using natural ECM (collagen-Matrigel) materials are successfully fabricated. The hepatocytes and endothelial cells are seeded and co-cultured in the ECM-based micro-honeycomb to prepare a 3D liver model successfully mimicking an ultrastructure of liver and providing enhanced liver function.