3D cell manipulation with honeycomb-patterned scaffold for regeneration of bone-like tissues

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) has widely been used for manipulation and patterning of biological cells. In this paper, a novel multi-layer scaffold structure was designed for patterning cells in 3D via dielectrophoresis. Honeycomb patterns were integrated in each layer of the structure in order to pattern cells into bone-like tissues. When a voltage was supplied to the scaffold structure, non-uniform electric fields were established to manipulate cells automatically, forming honeycomb-shaped patterns at different layers. To confirm the proposed cell manipulation mechanism, the electric fields were simulated and the structure was examined through experiments. Different voltage inputs were tested and a voltage input of 20V can form a uniform and complete hexagon patterns. The results show that this novel 3D scaffold is able to manipulate biological cells in 3D via dielectrophoresis rapidly.