Construction of vascular-like microtubes via fluidic axis-translation self-assembly based on multiple hydrogels

Cellular vascular-like microtubes occupy an important position in tissue engineering for building in vitro tissue models. In this paper, we report a method of constructing three-dimensional (3D) multilayered vascular-like microtubes based on fluidic axis-translation self-assembly of two-dimensional (2D) microstructures inside microfluidic devices. The on-chip fabrication of cell (fibroblasts NIH/3T3) embedded 2D microstructures based on Poly (ethylene glycol) Diacrylate (PEGDA) and biodegradable material Gelatin Methacrylate (GelMa) were reported. A multilayered Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic device was fabricated for conducting the fluidic self-assembly of 2D microstructures. The fluidic axis-translation self-assembly process was experimentally demonstrated. Multiple hydrogels embedded microtube was constructed. The fabrication of GelMa microstructures was demonstrated. The degradability of cell embedded GelMa microstructures was evaluated by long-term observation, and it shows the great potential of GelMa to be used for constructing cellular vascular-like microtubes.