Cell-Laden Gels with Controlled Shapes
Cell-Laden Gels with Controlled Shapes
Submitted by Behnam Zamanian, Mahdokht Masaeli, Jason W. Nichol, Masoud Khabiry, Matthew J. Hancock, Hojae Bae and Ali Khademhosseini
Behnam Zamanian, Mahdokht Masaeli, Jason W. Nichol, Masoud Khabiry, Matthew J. Hancock, Hojae Bae, Ali Khademhosseini
Khademhosseini Laboratory, MIT Center for Biomedical Engineering at Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Fluorescence Image from Inverted Microscope
"Cell-laden hydrogels show great promise for creating engineered tissues. However, a major shortcoming with these systems has been the inability to fabricate structures with controlled micrometer-scale features on a biologically relevant length scale. The image illustrates the capabilities of a new method to create centimeter-scale, cell-laden hydrogels through the assembly of shape-controlled microgels on a liquid–air interface. A hierarchical surface tension directed assembly process created this hexagonal pattern of hexagonal gelatin methacrylate microgels with 3T3 (green) and HepG2 (red) cells."