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Mechanobiology of Disease
Poster Abstracts
51
22-POS
Board 22
Developing of Artificial Microvasculature Using Coaxial Electrospun Porous Microfibers
Je-Hyun Han
, Ung Hyun Ko, Jennifer H. Shin.
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea.
For proper regeneration of severely damaged tissue, tissue engineering focuses on development
of transplantable artificial 3D tissues. One of the main issues in the development of artificial 3D
tissues is maintaining high viability in the densely packed cells. For this, it would be essential to
integrate functional vasculatures in the tissue. Based on these needs, there have been extensive
studies on constructing capillary-like structures using 3D printing, MEMS and other micro-
manufacture techniques. The coaxial electrospinning would be an efficient way to make micro-
sized hollow tubes using soluble core and biocompatible shell polymers. In this study, the overall
structure of fibers was fabricated with polycaprolactone (PCL) solution and heavy mineral oil to
mimic capillary-like channels. Additionally, to enhance the nutrition exchange between the
inside and outside of the fibers, phase separation techniques were utilized using PCL solution
and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) mixture to develop nano-sized pores on the surface of the
fibers. These fibers were collected using tilted gap aluminum collectors to regulate the spacing
between capillary fibers and to constrain the number of fibers. The PCL grip was then printed
onto the collected fibers to allow easy stacking of the layers of capillary fibers. Human umbilical
vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured on the collected fibers to be formed artificial
capillary-vessel like channels. The viability and functionality of HUVECs were quantified using
immunohistochemistry under different fiber morphology and densities. From this study, porous
micro-sized channel based vasculature is shown to be utilized as the essential basis of in vitro 3D
structures and cell survival for tissue engineering. This work was supported by the NRF grant
2013R1A2A2A01017014 and 2015M3A9B3028685.