Figure 6.

Hydrogel extrusion methods. (Ai) Schematics of the fabrication of fibrin microthreads with MES etching (pH = 5.5 or 5.0). (ii) Immunostaining of phalloidin (green) and Hoechst (blue) showed higher myoblast elongation on fibrin microthreads treated with MES 5.0 compared to those treated with MES 5.5 and dH₂O microthreads (control). Scale bar 100 μm. (iii) Nuclear orientation and (iv) the percent of total cells aligned along the microthreads direction (0°–15°) demonstrated higher preferential orientation along the long axis for MES 5.0 treated microthreads (Reproduced with permission from ref (165). Copyright 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim). (Bi) Schematics of the fabrication of hydrogel fibers inspired by the production process of traditional Chinese noodles. Phase-contrast and fluorescent images (phalloidin red, nuclei blue) showed cells successfully encapsulated into hydrogel microfibers. (ii) Brightfield microscopy images of microfibers obtained using a sieve with different pore sizes (300 μm left, 100 μm right) (Reproduced with permission from ref (169). Copyright 2019 The Authors, Springer Nature CCBY-NC-ND 4.0).