Facile Photopatterning of Perfusable Microchannels in Synthetic Hydrogels to Recreate Microphysiological Environments.

ABSTRACT: The fabrication of perfusable hydrogels is crucial for recreating in vitro microphysiological environments. Existing strategies to fabricate complex microchannels in hydrogels involve sophisticated equipment/techniques. A cost-effective, facile, versatile, and ultra-fast methodology is reported to fabricate perfusable microchannels of complex shapes in photopolymerizable hydrogels without the need of specialized equipment or sophisticated protocols. The methodology utilizes one-step ultraviolet (UV) light-triggered cross-linking and a photomask printed on inexpensive transparent films to photopattern PEG-norbornene hydrogels. Complex and intricate patterns with high resolution, including perfusable microchannels, can be fabricated in <1 s. The perfusable hydrogel is integrated into a custo

SUBMITTER: Mora-Boza A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10841628 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature