1. Rapid prototyping of perfusion cell culture devices for three-dimensional imaging of mesenchymal stem cell deposition and proliferation.
- Author
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Scott TE, Boccarossa T, Florian D, Fischer MA, Peck SH, Savona MR, Pingen G, and Guelcher SA
- Abstract
Perfusion of porous scaffolds transports cells to the surface to yield cellular constructs for 3D models of disease and for tissue engineering applications. While ceramic scaffolds mimic the structure and composition of trabecular bone, their opacity and tortuous pores limit the penetration of light into the interior. Scaffolds that are both perfusable and amenable to fluorescence microscopy are therefore needed to visualize the spatiotemporal dynamics of cells in the bone microenvironment. In this study, a hybrid injection molding approach was designed to enable rapid prototyping of collector arrays with variable configurations that are amenable to longitudinal imaging of attached human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) using fluorescence microscopy. Cylindrical collectors were arranged in an array that is permeable to perfusion in the xy -plane and to light in the z-direction for imaging from below. The effects of the collector radius, number, and spacing on the collection efficiency of perfused hMSCs was simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and measured experimentally using fluorescence microscopy. The effect of collector diameter on simulated and experimental cell collection efficiencies followed a trend similar to that predicted by interception theory corrected for intermolecular and hydrodynamic forces for the arrays with constant collector spacing. In contrast, arrays designed with constant collector number yielded collection efficiencies that poorly fit the trend with collector radius predicted by interception theory. CFD simulations of collection efficiency agreed with experimental measurements within a factor of two. These findings highlight the utility of CFD simulations and hybrid injection molding for rapid prototyping of collector arrays to optimize the longitudinal imaging of cells without the need for expensive and time-consuming tooling., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Scott Guelcher reports financial support was provided by Incyte Corporation. Michael Savona reports financial support was provided by Incyte Corporation. Sun Peck reports financial support was provided by 10.13039/100000738US Department of Veterans Affairs. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)
- Published
- 2024
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