@article {18881, title = {Microengineered Multicomponent Hydrogel Fibers: Combining Polyelectrolyte Complexation and Microfluidics}, journal = {ACS Biomaterials Science \& Engineering }, volume = {3}, year = {2017}, month = {2017-02-08 00:00:00}, pages = {1322{\textendash}1331}, publisher = {ACS Publications}, abstract = {

Fiber-based techniques hold great potential\ toward the development of structures that mimic the\ architecture of fibrous tissues, such as tendon. Microfluidics\ and polyelectrolyte complexation are among the most widely\ used techniques for the fabrication of fibrous structures. In this\ work, we combined both techniques to generate hydrogel fibers\ with a fibrillar-like structure. For this, either methacrylated\ hyaluronic acid (MA-HA) or chondroitin sulfate (MA-CS) were\ mixed with alginate (ALG), being all negatively charged\ polysaccharides, combined with chitosan (CHT), which is\ positively charged, and separately injected into a microfluidic\ device. Through a continuous injection into a coagulation bath\ and subsequent photo-cross-linking, we could obtain multi-component hydrogel fibers, which exhibited smaller fibrils aligned in parallel, whenever CHT was present. The biological performance was assessed upon encapsulation and further culture of tendon cells. Overall, the reported process did not affect cell viability and cells were also able to maintain their main function of producing extracellular matrix up to 21 days in culture. In summary, we developed a novel class of photo-cross-linkable multicomponent hydrogel fibers than can act as bioactive modulators of cell behavior.\ 

}, keywords = {chondroitin sulfate, fiber-based techniques, Hyaluronic acid, Microfluidics, Polyelectrolyte complexation, Tendon}, issn = {2373-9878}, doi = {10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6b00331}, url = {http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6b00331}, author = {Costa-Almeida, R. and Gasperini, L. and Borges, J. and Babo, P. S. and Rodrigues, M. T. and Mano, J. F. and Reis, R. L. and Gomes, M. E.} }