A microfluidic strategy to fabricate ultra-thin polyelectrolyte hollow microfibers as 3D cellular carriers

Microfluidics-based microfibers have been widely used as bottom-up scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Different forms of microfibers with certain thickness of shell have been developed during the past decade. Ultra-thin microfiber, as a special and promising carrier of cells, was less explored. In this work, by using the interfacial ionic interaction between sodium alginate (NaA) and chitosan (CS), a novel ultra-thin polyelectrolyte hollow microfiber with the diameter of ~200 μm and the shell thickness of 1.3 ± 0.3 μm was fabricated via a microfluidic device for liver tissue engineering. The fluorescence of FITC labeled CS confirmed the inner CS layer of the fabricated microfiber and the SEM results illustrated its ultra-thin characteristic. Although there are only two layers in the ultra-thin polyelectrolyte hollow microfiber, the following cells encapsulation experiments indicated that it could bear cells loading and the hollow space of the microfibers could encapsulate sufficient number of cells for tissue engineering applications. The presence of inner CS layer in the microfiber promoted cell adhesion and ultra-thin shell characteristic facilitated the exchange of nutrient substance and O₂ and thus promoted cell proliferation. HepG2 cells encapsulated in the microfibers maintained favorable viability, proliferation ability and hepatic specific functions during 10 days' culture. These results suggest that the established polyelectrolyte microfibers hold great potential applications in the field of liver tissue engineering. We believe this work will lead to the development of innovative methodologies and materials for both cell culture and biomedical application.