Cultivation of agarose-based microfluidic hydrogel promotes the development of large, full-thickness, tissue-engineered articular cartilage constructs

The fabrication of tissue-engineered constructs of clinically relevant sizes continues to be plagued by poor nutrient transport to the interior of the construct. Consequences of poor mass transfer to the construct core include large gradients in cell viability and matrix deposition, as well as inadequate mechanical functionality. Prior literature has shown that embedded microfluidic channels offer the potential to control the spatial and temporal presentation of hydrodynamic and chemical cues within the developing tissue construct toward improved mass transfer. The current state of the art in microfluidic constructs, however, has fallen short of achieving sufficient thickness and robustness of constructs for further development towards translation. Towards this goal, we designed a microfluidic tissue construct and established bioprocessing conditions to meet nutrient transport requirements of a large, full-thickness, articular cartilage construct over a 2 week culture period. Our microfluidic constructs of 2.5 and 5 mm thicknesses showed enhanced cell proliferation relative to statically cultured constructs. These constructs, which are both thick and robust to culture periods of sufficient length to support extracellular matrix development, represent an important improvement over previously reported constructs which were thinner and lacking in extracellular matrix (most likely attributable to too-short culture periods).