Scaffold-free biofabrication of adipocyte structures with magnetic levitation

Tissue engineering research aims to repair the form and/or function of impaired tissues. Tissue engineering studies mostly rely on scaffold-based techniques. However, these techniques have certain challenges, such as the selection of proper scaffold material, including mechanical properties, sterilization, and fabrication processes. As an alternative, we propose a novel scaffold-free adipose tissue biofabrication technique based on magnetic levitation. In this study, a label-free magnetic levitation technique was used to form three-dimensional (3D) scaffold-free adipocyte structures with various fabrication strategies in a microcapillary-based setup. Adipogenic-differentiated 7F2 cells and growth D1 ORL UVA stem cells were used as model cells. The morphological properties of the 3D structures of single and cocultured cells were analyzed. The developed procedure leads to the formation of different patterns of single and cocultured adipocytes without a scaffold. Our results indicated that adipocytes formed loose structures while growth cells were tightly packed during 3D culture in the magnetic levitation platform. This system has potential for ex vivo modeling of adipose tissue for drug testing and transplantation applications for cell therapy in soft tissue damage. Also, it will be possible to extend this technique to other cell and tissue types.