droplet evaporation control을 통한 cell laden hydrogel 만들기

모르는 단어

volatile: 휘발성 물질

marangoni flow?

surface tension gradient에 의해서 생기는 mass transfer라고 한다. 논문을 찾아서 읽어보는 중이다.

 

When a stationary droplet containing a solute in a volatile solvent evaporates, the flow in the droplet can assemble into complex patterns. Researchers have examined such transport in evaporating sessile droplets in solvents

demonstrated flow in evaporating aqueous sessile droplets containing the self-assembling polymer type I collagen

The team noted the Marangoni effect (a term originating from the spread of oil droplets on water) to direct the assembly of collagen fibers across millimeter-scale areas relative to environmental humidity and the geometric shape of the droplet. Nerger et al. incorporated and cultured skeletal muscle cells into the evaporating droplets to observe their collective orientation and subsequent differentiation to myotubes in response to the aligned networks of collagen.

Marangoni flows arising from thermal or solute-driven gradients in surface tension can also generate recirculating flows. Researchers have described flow in evaporating droplets mainly in the context of particles suspended in solvents that completely evaporate. In this work, Nerger et al. showed how flow in evaporating droplets could regulate the rate of protein self-assembly and control the alignment of fibrous cell-laden protein networks. 

Nerger et al. incorporated fluorescent beads into the droplets to understand if the orientation of collagen fibers correlated with the internal patterns of flow during evaporation. The bead movements were consistent with the patterns of collagen fiber alignment throughout the droplet. 

The measurements showed increased mobility for beads in the near-edge region of the droplet, while the average velocity of beads were five- to 10-fold higher in the edge or middle regions.

the team hypothesized that they could tune collagen alignment by adjusting the RH (relative humidity) variation. The process allowed them to also control the rate of droplet evaporation.

 

reference

Bryan A. Nerger et al. Marangoni flows drive the alignment of fibrillar cell-laden hydrogels, Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz7748