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Design data for the 3D printer modification to print gels and pastes and the corresponding firmware.

ABSTRACT: In order to deposit gel and paste-like materials, a commercially available HICTOP Prusa i3 plastic 3D printer was modified. The modification included replacing the existing plastic microextruder with a customised 3D printed syringe pump which could hold a syringe containing the printing material. The arrangement also allowed the temperature in the syringe to be controlled. Since the hardware of the printer was changed significantly, a new firmware was loaded on the 3D printer which was customised to enable it to perform its new function. The present data consists of the 3D image files of the syringe pump assembly and instructions on how to assemble the components. It also provides a copy of the modified firmware with a list of the changes made to it. This data will allow the readers to modify a similar type of 3D printer to print pastes and gels. This can be achieved by recreating the entire syringe pump assembly by 3D printing the given 3D image file data. With some changes, these designs can also be adapted to a variety of different printers. Similarly, the given firmware can also be loaded onto a similar type of printer. The list and explanation of the changes made to the firmware also allow such changes to be made to the respective firmwares of a variety of different printers.

SUBMITTER: Vadodaria SS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8050710 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Microfluidic devices are used extensively in the development of new in vitro cell culture models like organs-on-chips. A typical feature of such devices is the patterning of biological hydrogels to offer cultured cells and tissues a controlled three-dimensional microenvironment. A key challenge of hydrogel patterning is ensuring geometrical confinement of the gel, which is generally solved by inclusion of micropillars or phaseguides in the channels. Both of these methods often require costly cleanroom fabrication, which needs to be repeated even when only small changes need be made to the gel geometry, and inadvertently expose cultured cells to non-physiological and mechanically stiff structures. Here, we present a technique for facile patterning of hydrogel geometries in microfluidic chips, but without the need for any confining geometry built into the channel. Core to the technique is the use of laminar flow patterning to create a hydrophilic path through an otherwise hydrophobic microfluidic channel. When a liquid hydrogel is injected into the hydrophilic region, it is confined to this path by the surrounding hydrophobic regions. The various surface patterns that are enabled by laminar flow patterning can thereby be rendered into three-dimensional hydrogel structures. We demonstrate that the technique can be used in many different channel geometries while still giving the user control of key geometric parameters of the final hydrogel. Moreover, we show that human umbilical vein endothelial cells can be cultured for multiple days inside the devices with the patterned hydrogels and that they can be stimulated to migrate into the gel under the influence of trans-gel flows. Finally, we demonstrate that the patterned gels can withstand trans-gel flow velocities in excess of physiological interstitial flow velocities without rupturing or detaching. This novel hydrogel-patterning technique addresses fundamental challenges of existing methods for hydrogel patterning inside microfluidic chips, and can therefore be applied to improve design time and the physiological realism of microfluidic cell culture assays and organs-on-chips.

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Design data for the 3D printer modification to print gels and pastes and the corresponding firmware.

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