I wrote that article a year ago, after returning from GraphExpo, the largest 2D printing show in the USA. There have been several articles written on the topic, including my take here on. In fact they were already in it once, in a European partnership with Stratasys. The idea of HP getting into the 3D printing business is not new. Lab C(2013).According to an article in The Register, HP CEO Meg Whitman recently told the Canalys Channels Forum in Bangkok that the company will enter the 3D printer market in the middle of 2014. He: One-step microfluidic generation of pre-hatching embryo-like core–shell microcapsules for miniaturized 3D culture of pluripotent stem cells. Larson: The Structure and Rheology of Complex Fluids (Oxford University Press, New York, 1999). White: Fluid Mechanics (WCB Ed McGraw-Hill, Boston, 1999). Soman: Conductive gelatin methacrylate-poly(aniline) hydrogel for cell encapsulation. Soman: Gelatin methacrylate-alginate hydrogel with tunable viscoelastic properties. Burdick: Influence of gel properties on neocartilage formation by auricular chondrocytes photoencapsulated in hyaluronic acid networks. Liu: Three-dimensional hypoxic culture of human mesenchymal stem cells encapsulated in a photocurable, biodegradable polymer hydrogel: A potential injectable cellular product for nucleus pulposus regeneration. Seemann: Optimized droplet-based microfluidics scheme for sol–gel reactions. Barralet: Perfluorodecalin and bone regeneration. Soman: A novel suspended hydrogel membrane platform for cell culture. Soman: Behavior of encapsulated saos-2 cells within gelatin methacrylate hydrogels. Soman: An in vitro vascular chip using 3D printing-enabled hydrogel casting. Soman: Factors affecting dimensional accuracy of 3-D printed anatomical structures derived from CT data. Soman: Developing 3D scaffolds in the field of tissue engineering to treat complex bone defects. Breadmore: 3D printed microfluidic devices: Enablers and barriers. Cronin: Configurable 3D-printed millifluidic and microfluidic ‘lab on a chip’reactionware devices. Folch: The upcoming 3D-printing revolution in microfluidics. Wang: Simple and reusable off-the-shelf microfluidic devices for the versatile generation of droplets. Palmer: Microfluidic chip-based synthesis of alginate microspheres for encapsulation of immortalized human cells.
![3d priint d and d setup 3d priint d and d setup](https://i.imgur.com/wCk6jOB.jpg)
Weitz: Fabrication of monodisperse gel shells and functional microgels in microfluidic devices. Kumacheva: High-throughput generation of hydrogel microbeads with varying elasticity for cell encapsulation. Schmidt: Synthesis and size control of polystyrene latices via polymerization in microemulsion. Baxter: Efficient synthesis of sterically stabilized pH-responsive microgels of controllable particle diameter by emulsion polymerization. Takeuchi: Monodisperse alginate hydrogel microbeads for cell encapsulation. Khademhosseini: Synthesis, properties, and biomedical applications of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogels. Ma: Designing compartmentalized hydrogel microparticles for cell encapsulation and scalable 3D cell culture. Lee: Cell encapsulation via microtechnologies. Hankemeier: Microfluidic 3D cell culture: From tools to tissue models. Weitz: Injectable stem cell-laden photocrosslinkable microspheres fabricated using microfluidics for rapid generation of osteogenic tissue constructs. This simple, inexpensive method does not require the use of traditional cleanroom facilities and when combined with the appropriate flow setup is robust enough to yield tunable cell-laden hydrogel microspheres for potential tissue engineering applications.
![3d priint d and d setup 3d priint d and d setup](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Yd9G9h7wAySCd-BAz2IkR7d_pq4=/0x0:1200x900/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1200x900):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19783126/original_black_dragon.jpg)
For cell experiments, GelMA was mixed with human osteosarcoma Saos-2 cells, to generate cell-laden GelMA microspheres with high long-term viability. Empirical relationships between flow rates of GelMA and oil phases, microspheres size, and associated swelling properties were determined. Process parameters such as viscosity profile and UV cross-linking times were determined for a range of GelMA concentrations (7–15% w/v).
![3d priint d and d setup 3d priint d and d setup](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bPGvr9S7lFk/mqdefault.jpg)
Intersecting channel geometry was used to generate perfluorodecalin oil-coated gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) microspheres of varying sizes (35–250 µm diameters). An inverse mold was printed using a 3D printer, and replica molding was used to fabricate a PDMS microfluidic device. Here we report the design and fabrication of a 3D printer-enabled microfluidic device used to generate cell-laden hydrogel microspheres of tunable sizes. 3D printing has been shown to be a robust and inexpensive manufacturing tool for a range of applications within biomedical science.