Temperature effect on the shear-induced cell damage in biofabrication

Biofabrication that incorporates living cells to manufacture various bioproducts is often carried out at different temperatures as the process demands. In the process, cells are subjected to mechanical forces, which may damage cells if the forces reach a certain level. Previous studies have shown that the cell damage is mainly caused by shear stress; however, none of them looked at the temperature effect on cell damage. In the present work, the influence of temperature on shear-induced cell damage was investigated experimentally by using a cone-and-plate rheometer, and based on the experimental results, a cell damage law was established to quantitatively describe the relationship between the cell damage percent and temperature. The so-established cell damage law was then applied to the modeling of the cell damage percent that occurs in the biofabrication process in which pressurized air was applied to dispense Schwann cells suspended in the alginate solution at different temperatures. The agreement between the model predictions and the experimental results suggests that the method presented in this article is effective for use in the investigation of the temperature effect, thereby providing a cue to preserve cell viability in the biofabrication processes.