Open AccessA Method for High-Throughput Robotic Assembly of Three-Dimensional Vascular Tissue
Author(s) -
Christopher J. Nycz,
Hannah A. Strobel,
Kathy Suqui,
Jonian Grosha,
Gregory S. Fischer,
Marsha W. Rolle
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
tissue engineering. part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.964
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1937-335X
pISSN - 1937-3341
DOI - 10.1089/ten.tea.2018.0288
Subject(s) - computer science , biomedical engineering , stacking , throughput , tissue engineering , fuse (electrical) , nanotechnology , materials science , chemistry , engineering , telecommunications , electrical engineering , organic chemistry , wireless
Self-assembled tissues have potential to serve both as implantable grafts and as tools for disease modeling and drug screening. For these applications, tissue production must ultimately be scaled-up and automated. Limited technologies exist for precisely manipulating self-assembled tissues, which are fragile early in culture. Here, we presented a method for automatically stacking self-assembled smooth muscle cell rings onto mandrels, using a custom-designed well plate and robotic punch system. Rings then fuse into tissue-engineered blood vessels (TEBVs). This is a critical step toward automating TEBV production that may be applied to other tubular tissues as well.