चिप आकार scaffolds के तीन आयामी सेल की खेती के लिए Microfabrication

Summary

हम तीन आयामी सेल की खेती के लिए झरझरा बहुलक चिप्स के microfabrication के लिए दो प्रक्रियाओं को प्रस्तुत करते हैं. पहले एक गर्म embossing एक विलायक वाष्प वेल्डिंग की प्रक्रिया के साथ संयुक्त है. दूसरा एक एक हाल ही में विकसित microthermoforming प्रक्रिया आयन ट्रैक निर्माण का एक महत्वपूर्ण सरलीकरण प्रमुख प्रौद्योगिकी के साथ संयुक्त का उपयोग करता है.

Abstract

Using microfabrication technologies is a prerequisite to create scaffolds of reproducible geometry and constant quality for three-dimensional cell cultivation. These technologies offer a wide spectrum of advantages not only for manufacturing but also for different applications. The size and shape of formed cell clusters can be influenced by the exact and reproducible architecture of the microfabricated scaffold and, therefore, the diffusion path length of nutrients and gases can be controlled.1 This is unquestionably a useful tool to prevent apoptosis and necrosis of cells due to an insufficient nutrient and gas supply or removal of cellular metabolites.

Our polymer chip, called CellChip, has the outer dimensions of 2 x 2 cm with a central microstructured area. This area is subdivided into an array of up to 1156 microcontainers with a typical dimension of 300 m edge length for the cubic design (cp- or cf-chip) or of 300 m diameter and depth for the round design (r-chip).2

So far, hot embossing or micro injection moulding (in combination with subsequent laborious machining of the parts) was used for the fabrication of the microstructured chips. Basically, micro injection moulding is one of the only polymer based replication techniques that, up to now, is capable for mass production of polymer microstructures.3 However, both techniques have certain unwanted limitations due to the processing of a viscous polymer melt with the generation of very thin walls or integrated through holes. In case of the CellChip, thin bottom layers are necessary to perforate the polymer and provide small pores of defined size to supply cells with culture medium e.g. by microfluidic perfusion of the containers.

In order to overcome these limitations and to reduce the manufacturing costs we have developed a new microtechnical approach on the basis of a down-scaled thermoforming process. For the manufacturing of highly porous and thin walled polymer chips, we use a combination of heavy ion irradiation, microthermoforming and track etching. In this so called “SMART” process (Substrate Modification And Replication by Thermoforming) thin polymer films are irradiated with energetic heavy projectiles of several hundred MeV introducing so-called “latent tracks” Subsequently, the film in a rubber elastic state is formed into three dimensional parts without modifying or annealing the tracks. After the forming process, selective chemical etching finally converts the tracks into cylindrical pores of adjustable diameter.

Protocol

प्रक्रिया अनुक्रम # 1: गरम Embossing, मशीनिंग और सॉल्वेंट वाष्प वेल्डिंग अपनी क्यूबिक डिजाइन में CellChip गर्म embossing या सूक्ष्म इंजेक्शन मोल्डिंग द्वारा दोहराया है. इस के लिए, हम चिप की व्युत्क्रम ज्यामित?…

Discussion

हालांकि सूक्ष्म इंजेक्शन मोल्डिंग या गर्म embossing जैसे बहुलक microreplication, की स्थापना की विधियों microstructures के उत्पादन के लिए उपयुक्त हैं, वे वास्तव में एक एकीकृत और अत्यधिक नियंत्रित porosity के साथ microstructures उत्पादन में प्रभावी नह?…