20 documents found, page 1 of 2
Precise multiphase hydrogel engineering of miniaturized 3D cancer architectures...
Rial, Ramón; Guimarães, Carlos Ferreira; Gasperini, Luca; Brito, Alexandra; Costa, Rui R.; Ruso, Juan M.; Reis, R. L.Understanding cancer biology and therapy responses requires accurate in vitro models that reflect tumor complexity. This work presents a multiphase microfluidic biofabrication approach for creating self-standing three-dimensional (3D) tumor models within hydrogel microfiber boundaries. A single framework enabled the fast generation of different in vitro cellular configurations, including discrete spheroids ...
Dermal extracellular matrix extracts for wound healing: a pleiotropic trigger
Reis, Daniel Pedro Pires Alves; Malta, Mariana Jorge Oliveira Cardoso Denis; Gasperini, Luca; Marques, A. P.INTRODUCTION: Extracellular matrix (ECM) role is defined by direct cell‐ECM interactions and biomechanics and also by its capacity to store biochemical cues that are vital in tissue's repair. With this in mind, an in‐house method was devised to obtain extracts comprised of structural ECM components (strECM) and enriched in soluble ECM‐derived factors (sECM). Herein we hypothesised that each ECM fraction may tri...
The hurdles of collagen shrinkage: a promising GelMA-based organotypic skin app...
Eltayari, Zahara Saoud Faria; Gasperini, Luca; Marques, A. P.[Excerpt] Introduction: Collagen I (Col I) is the gold standard material to generate many in vitro tissue models, including organotypic skin. Col I remodeling by fibroblasts incorporated in the dermal part of the model leads to significant dimensional changes associated with additional hurdles when cultured within dynamic culture systems. These systems are relevant for the biofunctionality mimicry of the skin d...
Bioinks Enriched with ECM Components Obtained by Supercritical Extraction
Reis, Daniel P.; Domingues, Beatriz; Fidalgo, Cátia; Reis, R. L.; Gasperini, Luca; Marques, A. P.Extracellular matrix (ECM)-based bioinks have been steadily gaining interest in the field of bioprinting to develop biologically relevant and functional tissue constructs. Herein, we propose the use of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) technology to extract the ECM components of cell-sheets that have shown promising results in creating accurate 3D microenvironments replicating the cellâ s own ECM, to be used...
Shining a light on cancer - photonics in microfluidic tumor modeling and biosen...
Guimarães, Carlos Ferreira; Cruz-Moreira, Daniela; Caballero, David; Pirraco, Rogério P.; Gasperini, Luca; Kundu, Subhas C; Reis, R. L.Microfluidic platforms represent a powerful approach to miniaturizing important characteristics of cancers, improving in vitro testing by increasing physiological relevance. Different tools can manipulate cells and materials at the microscale, but few offer the efficiency and versatility of light and optical technologies. Moreover, light-driven technologies englobe a broad toolbox for quantifying critical biolo...
Microfluidic-driven biofabrication and the engineering of cancer-like microenvi...
Guimarães, Carlos F.; Gasperini, Luca; Reis, R. L.Despite considerable advances in cancer research and oncological treatments, the burden of the disease is still extremely high. While past research has been cancer cell centered, it is now clear that to understand tumors, the models that serve as a framework for research and therapeutic testing need to improve and integrate cancer microenvironment characteristics such as mechanics, architecture, and cell hetero...
Microscopy-guided laser ablation for the creation of complex skin models with f...
Abreu, C. M.; Gasperini, Luca; Lago, Manuela Ermelinda Lopes; Reis, R. L.; Marques, A. P.Engineering complex tissues requires the use of advanced biofabrication techniques that allow the replication of the tissue's 3D microenvironment, architecture and cellular interactions. In the case of skin, the most successful strategies to introduce the complexity of hair follicle (HF) appendages have highlighted the importance of facilitating direct interaction between dermal papilla (DP) cells and keratinoc...
Rescuing key native traits in cultured dermal papilla cells for human hair rege...
Abreu, Carla M.; Cerqueira, Mariana Teixeira; Pirraco, Rogério P.; Gasperini, Luca; Reis, R. L.; Marques, A. P.Introduction: The dermal papilla (DP) represents the major regulatory entity within the hair follicle (HF), inducing hair formation and growth through reciprocal interactions with epithelial cells. However, human DP cells rapidly lose their hair inductive ability when cultured in an epithelium-deficient environment. Objectives: To determine if the conditioned medium collected from interfollicular keratinocytes ...
3D flow-focusing microfluidic biofabrication: one-chip-fits-all hydrogel fiber ...
Guimarães, Carlos F.; Gasperini, Luca; Marques, A. P.; Reis, R. L.The microfluidic manipulation of hydrogels is a powerful tool to recapitulate functional biological ar- chitectures. A wide range of flow configurations and chip designs have been employed to create mi- crofibers with increasingly complex shapes and compositions requiring individually engineered setups. Distinctly, we demonstrate how one single 3D hydrodynamic flow-focusing chip can be used to obtain a continuo...
Microfluidics for processing of biomaterials
Gasperini, Luca; Marques, A. P.; Reis, R. L.Microfluidics techniques can be used to process a wide range of biomaterials, from synthetic to natural origin ones. This chapter describes microfluidic processing of biomaterials, mainly polymeric materials of natural origin, focusing on water-soluble polymers that form non-flowing phases after crosslinking. Some polysaccharides and proteins, including agarose, alginate, chitosan, gellan gum, hyaluronic acid, ...