Lasers enable tissue engineering

23rd June 2016

EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne)

Enaie Azambuja

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Two EPFL scientists have developed a method that uses lasers to carve out paths inside biocompatible gels to locally influence cell function and promote tissue formation. The work is published in Advanced Materials. Working at EPFL's Institute of Bioengineering, Matthias Lütolf and his PhD student Nathalie Brandenberg have developed a method that uses a laser to cut 3D pathways and networks for cells inside a hydrogel scaffold that matches their natural environment.

The method combines lasers with microfluidics - the science of controlling fluids in micrometer-sized spaces. The scientists used focalized short-pulsed lasers, which can generate enough power to create tiny tunnels in different gels already used in cell biology and tissue engineering.

The laser can be applied before or even during 3D cell culture, meaning that the cells can be controlled in "real time" to match their natural growth.

Meanwhile, microfluidics have become the key to tissue engineering. The technology offers unprecedented control over the cells' microenvironment, as it can emulate the complex adaptability of biological microenvironments, allowing behavior-adjusting signals to be delivered to the cells in the form of drugs or other compounds.

As such, microfluidics are extensively used to build cell culture systems for growing cells. However, microfluidics have been largely limited to 2D cell culture applications, and are not easy to apply for long-term cell culture.

Some efforts to use microfluidics in 3D cultures have proven successful, but they involve multiple labor-intensive steps that render them inefficient for standardized applications. But by combining microfluidics with the flexibility of laser carving (or "photoablation"), Brandenberg and Lütolf have brought ease, robustness and versatility to the approach.