MICROFLUIDIC PRODUCTION OF YARN-BALL-SHAPE HYDROGEL BEADS AND ITS APPLICATION TO HIGH-DENSITY CELL CULTIVATION

摘要

We present a microfluidic system to prepare highly-unique hydrogel microbeads having yarn-ball morphology. The process includes the incomplete gelation of a sodium alginate solution into a Ca-alginate hydrogel fiber, and its fragmentation and folding in water-in-oil (W/O) droplets to form yarn-ball-shape beads. The synthesized microbeads allow the efficient supply of oxygen and nutrients to its center compared to homogeneous spherical beads. We examined factors dominating the size, shape, and uniformity of the beads, and performed high-density cell cultivation (~1×10~8 cells/mL). The obtained hydrogel microbeads would be highly useful as carriers or matrices for biological immobilization, cultivation, and cell transplantation.