Three-Dimensional Microassembly of Cell-Laden Microplates by in situ Gluing with Photocurable Hydrogels

摘要

This paper describes a method for assembling cell-laden microplates into three-dimensional (3D) mi-crostructures by in situ gluing using photocurable hydrogels. We picked up cell-laden microplates with mi-crotweezers, placed the plate perpendicular to one another on a microgroove device, and glued them by local photopolymerization of biocompatible Poly (Ethy-lene Glycol) (PEG) hydrogels. The advantage of this assembly method is its ability to construct 3D biological microstructures with targeted cells. We demonstrated the assembly of a 3D half-cube microstructure with genetically labeled cell-laden microplates. We believe our method is useful for engineering the positions of cells in 3D configurations for cell-cell interaction analysis and tissue engineering.