Emulated circulatory system integrated with lobule-mimetic liver to enhance the liver function

Abstract

In the proposed paper, we report dielectrophoresis (DEP) liver lab chip integrated with Poly ethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) based blood vessel within the microfluidic system for reconstructing the engineered liver tissue with the feature of liver function enhancement. The titanium (Ti) electrodes are well designed to provide positive dielectrophoresis (pDEP) and negative dielectrophoresis (nDEP) force to pattern HepG2 and 3T3 fibroblast cells. To mimic the blood flow direction of the liver lobule in vivo, we have integrated the reconstructed liver lobule with hydrogel encapsulated blood vessel. As smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells are the main components of blood vessel, we have utilized these cells and encapsulated within PEGDA hydrogel to mimic blood vessels. When assayed for urea concentration in cultured medium for five time points, the trend illustrated the enhanced metabolism of hepatocytes via blood vessel integrated lobule-mimetic pattern. © 2012 IEEE.