Dissertation
Spatiotemporal control of microscopic hydrogel deformations and their tissue engineering applications
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Sep 2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00000183
Abstract
Tissue engineering, which aims to regenerate damaged human tissues or organs with biomaterials and living cells, developed rapidly in the past few decades and has motivated remarkable advancement in the studies on cell engineering, biomaterials, and biofabrication. In spite of such progress, the regeneration of thick tissues, which is needed for repairing a sizable tissue defect, remains difficult. One of the major obstacles is the challenge of creating cell-laden, cell-scale hollow structures that resemble the microvascular networks of our tissues. In an implant for our body, these microvascular networks enable the exchange of nutrients, oxygen, and metabolic wastes between cells and the larger blood vessels, which sustaining the cells' and the tissues' survival. In this study, I developed a novel 4D printing platform that creates microscale, cell-encapsulating, hollow 3D scaffolds for tissue vascularization. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were seeded on an inkjet-printed bilayer gelatin micropattern, the cell-lined micropattern was made capable of self-folding into 3D microtubes, at a moment of choice. This work contains four major topics including (a) developing a 4D platform to implement 4D printing of microscale cell-encapsulating hollow 3D scaffold, (b) developing a mathematical model to decipher the dynamics of shape transformation of the self-folding micropatterns, (c) developing biomimetic microvessel/microvascular network using the 4D printing method and investigating how cells behave in response to the microtubular, physical environment given by the 4D printing, and (d) testing the feasibility of vascularizing a 3D tissue-engineering scaffold using the 4D-printed microvessels. This study provides a novel way to create 3D cell-encapsulating tissue engineering scaffold and sheds the light on creating vascularized 3D tissue engineering implants as regenerative medicine.
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Details
- Title
- Spatiotemporal control of microscopic hydrogel deformations and their tissue engineering applications
- Creators
- Chunxiao Cui
- Contributors
- Li-Hsin Han (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- xvi, 179 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- College of Engineering (1970-2026); Mechanical Engineering (and Mechanics) (1970-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991014695247904721