Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: Meso-scale multi-material fabrication of a Synthetic ECM Mimic for In vivo-like Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

doi: 10.1101/842906

Figure Lengend Snippet: Schematic of the mutlimaterial template fabrication strategy. Using a gap electrode collector, the sequential deposition of aligned fibers resulted in creating a template layer of soluble microfibers (yellow) between two insoluble layers of nanofibers (orange) (A). The multimaterial fiber network was then heated for 1 h at 65 °C, allowing for the insoluble fibers to merge on the periphery of the template fibers (cross-sectional view, A inset). PCL plugs (white) were then deposited onto the fiber network (B), forming the well templates for cell seeding. The fibers were then embedded between layers of hydrogel prescursor (C). After crosslinking of the hydrogel, the construct was place in warmed acetone to dissolve the template, leaving the final hydrogel construct (D) with microchannels lined with aligned nanofibrous topography (D, Inset).

Article Snippet: 100 μl of pre-polymer solution was dispensed to form a thin hydrogel layer: collagen was placed in an incubator at 37 °C and 5% CO 2 for 5 min to initiate crosslinking; PEGDA was briefly crosslinked for 2.5 min under N 2 flow in a crosslinking cabinet (Ultralum, USA) equipped with 365-nm UV lamps (10 mW/cm 2 ).

Techniques: Construct