Fluidic Self-assembly of Multilayered Tubular Microstructures by Axis Translation inside Two-layered Microfluidic Devices

Microfluidic devices provide efficient approaches for building cellular tubular structures for in vitro tissue models in tissue engineering. In this paper, we report a novel method of constructing three-dimensional (3D) multilayered tubular structures based on axis translation of two-dimensionally (2D) microstructures inside microfluidic devices. The on-chip fabrication of movable 2D microstructures embedding fibroblasts (NIH/3T3) based on Poly (ethylene glycol) Diacrylate (PEGDA) was reported. Novel two-layered microfluidic devices were fabricated by Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), for conducting the fluidic self-assembly of the 2D microstructures. The self-assembly process was experimentally demonstrated. For improving the assembly results, a funneled structure and 3 micro grooves were added inside the microfluidic channel. Improved self-assembly result of constructing a multilayered tubular microstructure with higher efficiency was demonstrated.