Daria Sokoliuk (Bergisch Gladbach, DE; Ilmenau, DE), Peter Haeger (Bergisch Gladbach, DE), Daniel Fetting (Bergisch Gladbach, DE), Chen Zhou (Bergisch Gladbach, DE), Alexander Rockenbach (Bergisch Gladbach, DE), Steffen Czich (Heilbad Heiligenstadt, DE), Prof. Dr. Klaus Liefeith (Ilmenau, DE; Heilbad Heiligenstadt, DE), Prof. Dr. Doris Heinrich (Ilmenau, DE; Heilbad Heiligenstadt, DE)
Abstract text (incl. figure legends and references)
Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary research area with great potential for modeling human physiology and disease. One of the main challenges in this field is generation of a fine and perfusable vasculature with appropriate mechanical properties and biocompatibility. Fine capillary structures can be formed in vitro by combining angiogenesis with two-photon printing. Perfusion of an engineered vascular network is crucial to provide natural cell culture conditions that maintain optimal cell function.
This work aims to design a vasculature-on-a-chip device, which provides a vascular network that can be used, for example, to study angiogenesis under physiological and pathological conditions.
We outline the chip fabrication process that combines stereolithography with two-photon printing. Stereolithography is used for printing the main chip part, whereas two-photon technology aims to finalize the chip by printing 3D microstructures inside the chip. We describe the composition and advantages of the synthesized photosensitive material and present a biofunctionalization strategy to support cell culture.
We demonstrate the chip with 3D microstructures printed and imaged with two-photon technology and a successful culture of endothelial cells in this chip under perfusion.
The creation of perfusable vascular structures would make a significant contribution to the investigation of the influence of various treatments on the mechanism of angiogenesis.