Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Jun 20.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Mater. 2018 Apr 26;3(5):21–37. doi: 10.1038/s41578-018-0006-y

Fig. 5 |. Bioassembly of macroscopic tissue structures.

Fig. 5 |

a | Cell-laden beads are assembled by moulding in poÌy(dimethyÌsiÌoxane). The microscopy image shows a human doll-shaped tissue made of fluorescently labelled fibroblasts (green) and collagen beads. b | Point-shaped cell-laden structures containing human epithelial cells transfected with green fluorescent protein and human embryonic kidney cells transfected with red fluorescent protein can be delivered and subsequently assembled by microfluidic flow, c | Optically induced dielectrophoretic force-based manipulation for the assembly of point-shaped cell-laden structures can also be used. The device consists of a top glass substrate with transparent and conductive indium oxide (ITO) coating, a working chamber and a bottom ITO glass substrate coated with a thin photoconductive hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) film. The microscopy image shows assembled point-shaped structures containing fibroblasts (green), human embryonic kidney cells (blue) and human metastatic mammary carcinoma cells (red). d | Assembly of line-shaped cell-laden structures is also used. Helical tubes are formed by reeling of a hepatocyte-laden and a fibroblast-laden fibre with a rod. A T-shirt-shaped structure is formed by weaving cell-laden fibres with fibroblasts (green), hepatocytes (red) and small lung carcinoma cells (blue). Blood vessellike structures can be fabricated by dissolving smooth muscle cell-laden and endothelial cell-laden alginate gel fibres in a collagen block. e | Assembly of plane-shaped cell-laden structures is also used. Cell-laden sheets are stacked by sandwiching a hepatocyte-laden sheet (green) between endothelial cell-laden sheets (red). Tubular structures are created by rolling of a cell-laden sheet containing endothelial cells (green), smooth muscle cells (blue) and fibroblasts (magenta). The tubular structure has multiple cell layers. Panel a is reproduced from REF117, Macmillan Publishers Limited. Panel b is adapted with permission from REF118, John Wiley and Sons. Panel c is adapted from REF121, Macmillan Publishers Limited. Panel d is adapted with permission from REF123, American Chemical Society Panel e is adapted with permission from REFS128,129, John Wiley and Sons.