Blood vessels by fractal gelatin

In this study the authors developed a novel gelatin patterning technique applied to making blood vessel with fractal dendrite configuration. Such a chaotic tree-like pattern has been obtained through precipitating among the gelatin matrix which is spun coating on a glass substrate at room temperature. The weight percentage of the original gelatin solution is over-saturated. As the temperature decrease, the gelatin crystallizes and forms a natural fractal pattern in the thin film. The process parameters are changed and the hydraulic diameters of the fractal patterns are verified from 0.1 μm to 23 μm. Finally the authors used the biocompatible PDMS making blood vessel like capillary channels by the de-molding process of the soft lithography. The filling test of the PDMS fractal channel chip is done accordingly.