Advanced Fiber Materials, Volume. 6, Issue 5, 00433(2024)

3D Printing-Electrospinning Hybrid Nanofibrous Scaffold as LEGO-Like Bricks for Modular Assembling Skeletal Muscle-on-a-Chip Functional Platform

Zihan Wang1...2,3,†, Sitian Liu1,†, Mingying Han2,†, Jie Xu2, Maoyu Qin1, Qiao Yang2, Guanjie Zeng1,4, Meng Long1, Ting Li1, Junfeiyang Yin1, Liu Yu1, Wenhua Huang1,*, Ling Wang2,** and Yaobin Wu1,*** |Show fewer author(s)
Author Affiliations
  • 1Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Translation of Medical 3D Printing Application, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Digital Medicine and Biomechanics, Department of Human Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
  • 2Biomaterials Research Center, School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
  • 3Department of General Surgery, Nanfang Hospital, First Clinical Medical College, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
  • 4Department of Spinal Surgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
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    Organ-on-a-chip stands as a pivotal platform for skeletal muscle research while constructing 3D skeletal muscle tissues that possess both macroscopic and microscopic structures remains a considerable challenge. This study draws inspiration from LEGO-like assembly, employing a modular approach to construct muscle tissue that integrates biomimetic macroscopic and microscopic structures. Modular LEGO-like hybrid nanofibrous scaffold bricks were fabricated by the combination of 3D printing and electrospinning techniques. Skeletal muscle cells cultured on these modular scaffold bricks exhibited a highly orientated nanofibrous structure. A variety of construction of skeletal muscle tissues further enabled development by various assembling processes. Moreover, skeletal muscle-on-a-chip (SMoC) was further assembled as a functional platform for electrical or perfusion stimuli investigation. The electrical stimulus was conveniently applied and tuned in such a SMoC platform to significantly enhance the differentiation of skeletal muscle tissues. Additionally, the effect of perfusion stimulation on skeletal muscle vascularization within the SMoC platform was also demonstrated. These findings highlight the potential of these assembled SMoCs as functional ex vivo platforms for skeletal tissue engineering and drug research applications, and such a LEGO-like assembly strategy could also be applied to the other engineering organ-on-chips fabrication, which facilitates the development of bionic functional platforms for various biomedical research applications. We developed a list of modular nanofibrous scaffold bricks by a hybrid fabrication method combining 3D printing and electrospinning techniques, featuring precise microscale and nanoscale structures. Emulating the LEGO-like assembly method, these bricks were assembled along the x–y–z axis to mimic various skeletal muscle structures. These developed engineered skeletal muscle tissues were further integrated into the microfluidic chip to develop the skeletal muscle-on-a-chip (SMoC) as an in vitro testing platform for both electrical and perfusion stimuli investigation.

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    Zihan Wang, Sitian Liu, Mingying Han, Jie Xu, Maoyu Qin, Qiao Yang, Guanjie Zeng, Meng Long, Ting Li, Junfeiyang Yin, Liu Yu, Wenhua Huang, Ling Wang, Yaobin Wu. 3D Printing-Electrospinning Hybrid Nanofibrous Scaffold as LEGO-Like Bricks for Modular Assembling Skeletal Muscle-on-a-Chip Functional Platform[J]. Advanced Fiber Materials, 2024, 6(5): 00433

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    Paper Information

    Category: Research Articles

    Received: Feb. 8, 2024

    Accepted: May. 9, 2024

    Published Online: Nov. 14, 2024

    The Author Email: Huang Wenhua (hwh@smu.edu.cn), Wang Ling (wangling0607@smu.edu.cn), Wu Yaobin (wuyaobin2018@smu.edu.cn)

    DOI:10.1007/s42765-024-00433-5

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