High-throughput design of cultured tissue moulds using a biophysical model: optimising cell alignment

Area of Science:

• Biophysics
• Tissue Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• There is a need for tools to design scaffolds for growing tissues with specific cell organizations.
• Applications include regenerative medicine, drug screening, and cultured meat production.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify optimal tethered mould designs for achieving highly-aligned cell growth.
• To provide a computational framework for designing scaffolds with tailored cellular arrangements.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a microscopic biophysical model for polarized cellular hydrogels.
• Performed high-throughput biophysical calculations on computer-generated moulds.
• Simulated cell-matrix interactions and tissue-scale forces using a contractile network dipole orientation model.

Main Results:

• Identified specific mould geometries (elongated with central broadening) and tethering strategies that promote cell alignment.
• Demonstrated that tethers guiding alignment or shrinking available space enhance cellular organization.
• Validated the proof-of-concept for tethered scaffold design based on the biophysical model.

Conclusions:

• The developed technique and mould designs are effective for growing highly-aligned cells.
• The approach is applicable to various cell types and extensible to 3D scaffolds.
• This work advances scaffold design for tissue engineering applications.