Microfluidics-assisted electrospinning of aligned nanofibers for modeling intestine barriers

PeerJ

article

Wentao Su¹  Miao Zhang³  Wenbo Wei³  Haitao Wang¹  Wei Zhang⁴  Zhongyu Li⁵  Mingqian Tan¹  Zongzheng Chen³ 

[1] School of Food Science and Technology, National Engineering Research Center of Seafood, Dalian Polytechnic University;Academy of Food Interdisciplinary Science, Dalian Polytechnic University;The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University;Research Center for Clinical Pharmacology, Southern Medical University;Dalian Minzu University

关键词: Microfluidics;    Foodborne nanofibers;    Electrospinning;    Nanofiber alignment;    Intestine barriers;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.13513

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

During electrospinning, the fibers deposited on the collector are usually randomly oriented in a disordered form. Researchers hope to generate periodic structures to expand the application of electrospinning, including improving the sensing properties of electronic and photonic devices, improving the mechanical properties of solid polymer composites and directional growth of human tissues. Here, we propose a technique to control the preparation of aligned foodborne nanofibers by placing dielectric polymers on microfluidic devices, which does not require the use of metal collectors. This study was conducted by introduced PEDOT:PSS polymer as a ground collector to prepare aligned foodborne nanofibers directly on the microfluidic platform. The fluidity of the electrolytic polymer collector makes it possible to shape the grounding collector according to the shape of the microcavity, thus forming a space adjustable nanofiber membrane with a controllable body. The simplicity of dismantling the collector also enables it extremely simple to obtain a complete electrospun fiber membrane without any additional steps. In addition, nanofibers can be easily stacked into a multi-layer structure with controllable hierarchical structures. The Caco-2 cells that grow on the device formed a compact intestinal epithelial layer that continuously expresses the tightly bound protein ZO-1. This intestinal barrier, which selectively filters small molecules, has a higher level of TEER, reproducing intestinal filtration functions similar to those of in vivo models. This method provides new opportunities for the design and manufacture of various tissue scaffolds, photonic and electronic sensors.

【 授权许可】

CC BY