AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/ijb.1102
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Controlled preparation of droplets for cell encapsulation by air-focused microfluidic bioprinting 

Chenjing Yang1,2,3† ,  Wei Wu1† ,  Yang 1†Gao ,  Shuxing Lao4 ,  Shikai Zhang4 ,  Jianghui Tang1 ,  Xingqun Pu1 ,  Xingyu Lu5 ,  Fangfu Ye3,6* ,  Peng Zhao1* ,  Dong Chen1,2,4*
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1 Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, China
2 Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Smart Biomaterials, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
3 Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou 325001, Zhejiang Province, China
4 College of Energy Engineering and State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
5 Key Laboratory of Precise Synthesis of Functional Molecules of Zhejiang Province, Instrumentation and Service Center for Molecular Sciences, Westlake University, 18 Shilongshan Road, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
6 Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
IJB 2024, 10(1), 1102 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.1102
Submitted: 19 June 2023 | Accepted: 9 August 2023 | Published: 8 January 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Microfluidics is a facile platform that manipulates fluids for the production of droplets, particles, and microcapsules. However, the application of microfluidics is limited to the manipulation of the droplet position and the presence of a continuous oil phase, which needs to be removed for biomedical applications. Here, we used air as the continuous phase and developed a facile method for droplet generation and patterning by air-focused microfluidic three-dimensional (3D) droplet printing (AFMDP). By tuning the viscous drag of a focused air flow, monodisperse droplets with tunable size were generated in a microfluidic device, and droplet patterns were designed by combining the control system of the 3D printer. When using droplets as templates, hydrogel particles were prepared by AFMDP and crosslinked in a CaCl2 bath. These hydrogel particles were proven to be good carriers for the cell culture, controlled release, and immune therapy using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. Cell viability and activity results confirmed that encapsulation of CAR-T cells in hydrogel particles did not compromise their cell activity and functionality but facilitated their manipulation and cell culture. Therefore, the AFMDP system provided a versatile platform for the design of droplets, particles, and microcapsules for biomedical applications.

Keywords
Microfluidics
Droplet
3D printing
Particle
Funding
This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFC3001101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22278352), and a project supported by the Scientific Research Fund of Zhejiang University (Grant No. XY2022048).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing
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