Vascular Tissue Engineering: Recent Advances in Small Diameter Blood Vessel Regeneration
Figure 5
Sketch of cell ring-based approach; (a) schematic of cell seeding and ring self-assembly process; monodisperse cells (black dots) are pipetted into ring-shaped agarose wells; within 24 hours, cells form ring-shaped aggregates (black circles) contracted around center posts; (b) photograph of 2 mm diameter rat smooth muscle cell rings (arrowhead) in agarose wells; (c) schematic of agarose well fabrication process; silicone elastomer (PDMS) is cured on machined polycarbonate molds to form a template; molten agarose is poured into the PDMS template to form agarose wells; polycarbonate mold dimensions (post diameter, ; well width, ; and well height, ) can be modified to make cell rings of different sizes (courtesy of Dr. Marsha W. Rolle, Worcester Polytechnic Institute).
