Research Article

Using Sacrificial Cell Spheroids for the Bioprinting of Perfusable 3D Tissue and Organ Constructs: A Computational Study

Figure 2

MMC simulation of the fusion of heterotypic aggregates made of randomly intermixed smooth muscle cells (red) and endothelial cells (green) and aggregates of sacrificial cells (yellow). Within 5 × 104 MCS, the initial state (a) evolves into an undesired configuration (b) if the model parameters were inappropriate (, , , , , , and ) and an anatomically correct structure (c, d) if the model parameters described the right hierarchy of interfacial tensions (, , , , , , and ). Here, for the cell culture medium, for smooth muscle cells (red), for endothelial cells (green), and for sacrificial cells (yellow). In (a)–(c), the left column depicts the 3D view of the entire construct, whereas the right column exposes sacrificial cells by not showing the top half of the tube’s wall. In (d), the left image shows endothelial and sacrificial cells by hiding smooth muscle cells from the top half of the tube’s wall, whereas the right image shows the bottom half of the tube after the elimination of the sacrificial cells.
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