Collagen Gel Cell Encapsulation to Study the Effect of Fluid Flow on Mechanotransduction

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are widely implicated for their potential use as a cell source for tissue engineering of skeletal tissue in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Mechanical forces from the microenvironment have a significant influence on differentiation of MSCs, and the resulting mechanotransduction would provide crucial adjuncts to standard biochemical signalling pathways. Combining microfluidic systems with mechanical stimulation for osteogenesis represents both a scientific and technological innovation that would greatly impact the field of regenerative medicine. We demonstrate a microfluidic chamber design for mechanical stimulation of flexible cellular microspheres and possibly a high-throughput microfluidic system for parallel processing of stem cell aggregation. We also showed that collagen microspheres serve an efficient cell delivery device supporting cell viability and migration post encapsulation.