Journal
BIOMATERIALS
Volume 77, Issue -, Pages 120-129Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2015.10.080
Keywords
Self-assembly; Spheroid; Cell-derived ECM; Mechanical properties; Strong tissues; Aligned ECM
Funding
- DoD [W81XWH-10-1-0643]
- NSF [1129172, CBET-1428092]
- Directorate For Engineering
- Div Of Civil, Mechanical, & Manufact Inn [1129172] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The alignment and blend of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins give a tissue its specific mechanical properties as well as its physiological function. Various tissue engineering methods have taken purified ECM proteins and aligned them into gels, sponges and threads. Although, each of these methods has created aligned ECM, they have had many limitations including loss of hierarchal collagen structure and poor mechanical performance. Here, we have developed a new method to control ECM synthesis using self-assembled cells. Cells were seeded into custom designed, scaffold-free, micro-molds with fixed obstacles that harnessed and directed cell-mediated stresses. Cells within the microtissue reacted to self-generated tension by aligning, elongating, and synthesizing an ECM whose organization was dictated by the strain field that was set by our micro-mold design. We have shown that through cell selection, we can create tissues with aligned collagen II or aligned elastin. We have also demonstrated that these self-assembled microtissues have mechanical properties in the range of natural tissues and that mold design can be used to further tailor these mechanical properties. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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