Stacks of Microfabricated Structures as Scaffolds for Cell Culture and Tissue Engineering

Abstract

The fabrication of microscopic 3-dimensional structures for directing and inducing cell proliferation, migration and differentiation is a prevailing goal in tissue engineering. We have developed microfluidic molding methods to generate proof-of-principle polyurethane microstructures containing holes as models of synthetic tissue scaffolds. Molding is achieved by injecting sub-milliliter quantities of polyurethane precursor into a network of capped polydimethylsiloxane microchannels. After curing of the polyurethane, the microchannels can be opened to release a solid polyurethane structure which replicates the structure of the microchannel network. The microchannels can be reused to generate many exact replicas which can be stacked. We were able to design stacks that mimic various bone architectures. 3-dimensional microtomographic images were used for the first time for visualization and quality control of the stacked microfabricated structures. The polyurethane structures are amenable to cell culture. This technology could potentially be applied to microfabricate implanTable 3-dimensional scaffolds of specified architecture and composition for tissue growth and regeneration.