Fig. 1. Design and fabrication of the biomimetic SONIC scaffold.

a A digital image of a larva of the mealworm beetle (Tenebrio molitor). b 3D reconstruction of Nano-CT images of the tail of a mealworm (left) and the segmented gas-phase tracheal system (right) inside the body. c Schematic illustrating the tracheal system in a mealworm and O₂ delivery to the surrounding cellular tissue through the tracheae. d A schematic illustrating O₂ delivery from the transplantation site into the cell encapsulation system through a tracheal ladder network-like SONIC scaffold. e Chemical structure of the fluoropolymer PVDF-HFP. f Fabrication of the ladder-like SONIC scaffold. g A digital image of the SONIC scaffold. h Schematics representing the macro- and microarchitecture structure of the SONIC scaffold. i A Nano-CT image of the porous scaffold (the asterisks indicate the pore regions). j 3D reconstruction of Nano-CT images of a selected region (26 × 34.84 × 5.36 µm) inside the SONIC scaffold showing the bicontinuous microstructure (the diffuse red coloring indicates the air phase in the porous skeleton). k Skeletal networks for the polymeric (blue) and the porous (red) regions of the SONIC scaffold.