@article{f423d670050b4c06be4d9b09fe86d8cc,
title = "Capillary-Scale Hydrogel Microchannel Networks by Wire Templating",
abstract = "Microvascular networks are essential for the efficient transport of nutrients, waste products, and drugs throughout the body. Wire-templating is an accessible method for generating laboratory models of these blood vessel networks, but it has difficulty fabricating microchannels with diameters of ten microns and narrower, a requirement for modeling human capillaries. This study describes a suite of surface modification techniques to selectively control the interactions amongst wires, hydrogels, and world-to-chip interfaces. This wire templating method enables the fabrication of perfusable hydrogel-based rounded cross-section capillary-scale networks whose diameters controllably narrow at bifurcations down to 6.1 ± 0.3 microns in diameter. Due to its low cost, accessibility, and compatibility with a wide range of common hydrogels of tunable stiffnesses such as collagen, this technique may increase the fidelity of experimental models of capillary networks for the study of human health and disease.",
keywords = "bifurcations, capillaries, hydrogel, microchannels, microvasculature, phantom, wire-templating",
author = "Shusei Kawara and Brian Cunningham and James Bezer and Neelima, \{K. C.\} and Jingwen Zhu and Tang, \{Meng Xing\} and Jun Ishihara and Choi, \{James J.\} and Au, \{Sam H.\}",
note = "This research project was funded/supported by the Rotary International Global Grant (GG2014756), JASSO Postgraduate Scholarship (G2299999919N), Cancer Research UK (DRCMDPA\textbackslash{}\textbackslash{}100008), the CRUK Convergence Science Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Imperial College London (A26234), and EPSRC CDT EP/L015226/1, China Scholarship Council, and EPSRC under Grant EP/T008970/1. This work utilized expertise and prototyping equipment at the Imperial College Advanced Hackspace. The authors also thank Florent Seichepine for assisting vapor deposition process and William Lim Kee Chang for providing his expertise in chemistry. [Correction added after publication 18 October 2023: Table 1 was corrected.] This research project was funded/supported by the Rotary International Global Grant (GG2014756), JASSO Postgraduate Scholarship (G2299999919N), Cancer Research UK (DRCMDPA\textbackslash{}\textbackslash{}100008), the CRUK Convergence Science Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Imperial College London (A26234), and EPSRC CDT EP/L015226/1, China Scholarship Council, and EPSRC under Grant EP/T008970/1. This work utilized expertise and prototyping equipment at the Imperial College Advanced Hackspace. The authors also thank Florent Seichepine for assisting vapor deposition process and William Lim Kee Chang for providing his expertise in chemistry.",
year = "2023",
month = oct,
day = "18",
doi = "10.1002/smll.202301163",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "19",
journal = "Small",
issn = "1613-6810",
publisher = "Wiley-VCH",
number = "42",
}