One-Step Fabrication of an Organ-On-A-Chip with Spatial Heterogeneity Using a 3D Bioprinting Technology
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Featuring work from the group of Professor Dong-Woo Cho in As featured in: the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea. One-step fabrication of an organ-on-a-chip with spatial heterogeneity using a 3D bioprinting technology A one-step fabrication method using 3D bioprinting technology was developed for making whole organ-on-a-chip platforms, including microfl uidic systems. Heterotypic cell types and biomaterials were successfully used and positioned at the desired position for various organ-on-a-chip applications, which will promote full mimicry of organs. See Hyungseok Lee and Dong-Woo Cho, Lab Chip, 2016, 16, 2618. www.rsc.org/loc Registered charity number: 207890 Lab on a Chip View Article Online PAPER View Journal | View Issue One-step fabrication of an organ-on-a-chip with spatial heterogeneity using a 3D bioprinting Cite this: Lab Chip,2016,16,2618 technology Hyungseok Lee and Dong-Woo Cho* Although various types of organs-on-chips have been introduced recently as tools for drug discovery, the current studies are limited in terms of fabrication methods. The fabrication methods currently available not only need a secondary cell-seeding process and result in severe protein absorption due to the material used, but also have difficulties in providing various cell types and extracellular matrix (ECM) environments for spatial heterogeneity in the organs-on-chips. Therefore, in this research, we introduce a novel 3D bio- printing method for organ-on-a-chip applications. With our novel 3D bioprinting method, it was possible to prepare an organ-on-a-chip in a simple one-step fabrication process. Furthermore, protein absorption on the printed platform was very low, which will lead to accurate measurement of metabolism and drug Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. sensitivity. Moreover, heterotypic cell types and biomaterials were successfully used and positioned at the Received 3rd April 2016, desired position for various organ-on-a-chip applications, which will promote full mimicry of the natural Accepted 31st May 2016 conditions of the organs. The liver organ was selected for the evaluation of the developed method, and liver function was shown to be significantly enhanced on the liver-on-a-chip, which was prepared by 3D DOI: 10.1039/c6lc00450d bioprinting. Consequently, the results demonstrate that the suggested 3D bioprinting method is easier and www.rsc.org/loc more versatile for production of organs-on-chips. molding, and the microcontact printing technique.7,9 How- This article is licensed under a Introduction ever, these methods not only require microengineering exper- In recent decades, the microfluidics-based cell culture plat- tise in the fabrication process and exhibit severe protein ab- form has been revealed as an effective experimental tool for a sorption due to the material used, but also have several Open Access Article. Published on 15 2016. Downloaded 01.10.2021 4:33:20. wide range of biological applications, such as metabolomics,1 drawbacks in the aspect of biological structure preparation.9 cell analysis,2,3 and organs-on-chips.4 In particular, organs-on- For example, poor selectivity of various cell types for spatial chips, which mimic the biological environment of the human heterogeneity and the difficulty of providing multiple types of body, are rising as innovative tools in the field of drug discov- extracellular matrix (ECM) environments for cell–ECM inter- ery.5 The current drug discovery process requires multiple actions are the main drawbacks regarding the biological screening steps, which include two-dimensional (2D) in vitro structure preparation. Furthermore, living organisms have cell culture and animal model tests.6 However, it is generally complex and organized 2D-to-3D microscale structures com- known that the current 2D in vitro cell culture model, with posed of multi-layers, cell types, ECMs, and many other ele- cells only, cannot fully mimic the natural environment of hu- ments,10 which could make the fabrication of organs-on- man organs; the use of animal models also leads to several chips difficult using the current methods. Thus, establishing problems, such as ethical concerns, time consumption, and a novel microengineering method that can overcome the inefficient test results because of the huge differences com- aforementioned drawbacks is very important. pared with the human body.7 For these reasons, various types These days, 3D printing is used to produce functional de- – of organs-on-chips have been introduced for simple and pre- vices in diverse fields, such as tissue scaffolding,11 13 cise drug screening in the drug discovery process.8 prototyping,14 electronics,15 sensors,16 and microfluidic17 re- Organs-on-chips have been mainly prepared using several search, because of its capabilities in producing designed, microengineering methods, such as soft lithography, replica complex micro-architectures. Thus, a large number of studies have reported the fabrication of microfluidic devices with 3D printing technologies for chemical mixing, gradient genera- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), San 31, Hyoja-dong, Nam-gu, Pohang, Gyungbuk 790- tion, and sensing applications; however, most of them were 784, South Korea. E-mail: [email protected]; Fax: +82 54 279 5419; based on a stereolithography-based 3D printing 17–19 Tel: +82 54 279 2171 technology. Until now, no study has used cells and 2618 | Lab Chip,2016,16, 2618–2625 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016 View Article Online Lab on a Chip Paper biomaterials directly during the 3D printing process to estab- Design of an organ-on-a-chip platform lish the organ-on-a-chip platforms. 3D bioprinting is an ad- A 3D bioprinting code was generated for the printing system, vanced 3D printing technology that uses cells and biomate- and the organ-on-a-chip platforms were printed, which is an rials as printing materials. The most promising advancement easy approach to fabrication of an organ-on-a-chip platform of 3D bioprinting is that biocompatible polymers, ECM-based with a complex design via 3D bioprinting. A fluidic channel hydrogels, and multiple cell types can be delivered simulta- with internal dimensions of 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm × 15 mm was neously and positioned as intended to fabricate complex 3D prepared for multiple applications: for various organ-on-a- 20,21 biological constructs. There have been interesting studies chip platforms, protein absorption testing, and liver-on-a-chip that applied 3D bioprinting of a micro-organ on pre-prepared application. ECM-based hydrogels for the 3D micro- 22–24 microfluidic platforms for organ-on-a-chip applications; environment were printed with a 400 μm thickness for however, there have been no reports describing the use of various organ-on-a-chip platforms and the liver-on-a-chip. For this technology for whole organ-on-a-chip fabrication includ- the dye absorption test, a channel with the same internal size ing a microfluidic system with multiple cell types and bioma- as the one above was prepared by the 3D printing method terials for optimal biomimicry. Until recently, we have ac- and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS, Sylgard 184, Dow Corning tively developed 3D bioprinting systems and methods using Corporation, USA) replica molding. multiple cell types and biomaterials for complex-shaped heterogeneous tissue models.25 Based on our previous experi- Measurement of the contact angle and protein absorption ence and current work, we suggest that the 3D bioprinting method can be a good candidate to overcome the problems Distilled water (5 μL) was dropped onto each of the PCL and of current organs-on-chips. PDMS platforms, and each contact angle was measured by a Here, we verify the 3D bioprinting method for organ-on-a- droplet analysis device (SmartDrop, Femtofab, Korea). To chip platforms. Protein absorption on the organ-on-a-chip compare the dye absorption of the PCL-printed and PDMS μ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. platform was evaluated by comparing it with a PDMS plat- replica-molded devices, a solution of Rhodamine B (1 Min form, and the developed method was confirmed with hetero- phosphate-buffered saline) was pumped through the devices. typic cell types and biomaterials for application to various To perfuse through the devices, the dye was ejected at a flow −1 organ-on-a-chip platforms, which were prepared simply in a rate of 5 μL min from the perfusion pump (Ismatec UK Co. single printing process without a secondary cell-seeding pro- Weston-super-Mare, England). After perfusion for 12 hours, cess. Furthermore, our method was successfully applied to a each channel was cut through the vertical section, and the liver-on-a-chip, showing that it is easier and more versatile in absorption depth was visualized by using a confocal micro- producing organs-on-chips. scope (Olympus FluoView FV1000, Tokyo, Japan). This article is licensed under a Scanning electron microscopy Materials and methods All printed constructs were dried under vacuum at room tem- Open Access Article. Published on 15 2016. Downloaded 01.10.2021 4:33:20. Materials preparation perature, then coated with platinum in a sputter coater (Ion Sputter E-1045, Hitachi, Tokyo, Japan). An SEM system (SU- As a platform material for an organ-on-a-chip, 6600, Hitachi, Tokyo, Japan), operating at 15 kV, was used to polyIJε-caprolactone) (PCL, MW = 43 000–50 000, Polysciences examine the hydrogel position within the printed platform Inc., Warrington, PA, USA) was used. PCL was printed with a − and to analyze the printed microfluidic channels of the printing speed of 200 mm min 1 and a pneumatic pressure organ-on-a-chip platform. of 500 kPa using a 200 μm nozzle. PCL was printed with a minimum line width of 175 μm.