Microfluidic formation of multicore-shell cell-laden fibers

This paper describes a multicore-shell hydrogel fiber encapsulating multi type cell with lotus root structure (Fig. 1). Microfluidic techniques are able to encapsulate the cells in 3D configuration such as beads and fibers. Especially, an excellent method was reported that the core-shell cell microfibers reconstitute intrinsic morphologies and functions of living tissues in vitro [1]. Among various tissues and organs that have been targeted for in vitro reconstruction using cell microfiber application, various types of cells, such as pancreatic β cells [2], adipocytes [3], neural cells [4] and stem cells [5], can be cultured in a 3D tubular hydrogel microenvironment. However, cell distribution in vivo is extremely complex, and spatially anisotropic or heterogeneous tissues are widespread. We here took an approach to fabricate multicore-shell fibers with controlled heterogeneous cell-laden structures for construction of macro-size tissue. The fibers mimicked the structure of lotus root and the encapsulated cells in the fiber separately cultured as multi cell type co-culture system.