Viscous Microcapsules as Microbioreactors to Study Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells Osteolineage Commitment

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Engineering
• Cellular Mechanobiology
• Tissue Engineering

Background:

• Designing platforms to precisely control mechanical cues for cells is crucial for understanding cellular responses.
• Existing methods often lack the ability to finely tune mechanical forces in 3D dynamic culture systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel miniaturized bioreactor platform using liquefied capsules (LCs) for controlled application of shear stress.
• To investigate the impact of variable core viscosities within LCs on cellular mechanical force exposure.
• To demonstrate the platform's utility in studying cellular differentiation, using osteogenesis as a model.

Main Methods:

• Development of a high-throughput microbioreactor system by integrating liquefied capsule (LC) technology with electrospraying.
• Encapsulation of cells within LCs with varying core viscosities to create different mechanical environments.
• Application of 3D dynamic culture conditions to expose encapsulated cells to controlled shear stress.
• Utilizing computational modeling to simulate and estimate the shear stress experienced by cells within the LCs.

Main Results:

• The integrated electrospraying and LC technology enables high-throughput production of microbioreactors.
• Microbioreactors with higher core viscosity generated significantly higher shear stress (up to 1367 mPa).
• Increased shear stress within the LCs led to significantly enhanced osteogenic characteristics in the model system.

Conclusions:

• Liquefied capsule (LC) microbioreactors offer a customizable and reliable in vitro platform for studying cell mechanobiology.
• The platform facilitates high-throughput screening of mechanical stimuli effects on cell behavior.
• This technology has broad potential applications in regenerative medicine and drug discovery.