FIG. 9.

Toroids will fuse to form large multiluminal structures. Toroids (A–C) (∼75, 600 μm) or spheroids (D–F) (∼800, 200 μm) were harvested after 48 h of self-assembly and added to a single large well cast in agarose. The microtissues settled and formed a pile at the bottom of the well at day 0 (left column). Toroids overlapped randomly, but their lumens were oriented along the z axis. After 7 days (center column) samples were stained for viability with a live/dead assay (right column), which revealed higher proportions of viable cells (green) than dead cells (red) in toroid samples, as compared to spheroid samples. Scale bar is 500 μm. Color images available online at www.liebertonline.com/ten.