Microvalve Bioprinting of MSC-Chondrocyte Co-Cultures.

Recent improvements within the fields of high-throughput screening and 3D tissue culture have provided the possibility of developing in vitro micro-tissue models that can be used to study diseases and screen potential new therapies. This paper reports a proof-of-concept study on the use of microvalve-based bioprinting to create laminar MSC-chondrocyte co-cultures to investigate whether the use of MSCs in ACI procedures would stimulate enhanced ECM production by chondrocytes. Microvalve-based bioprinting uses small-scale solenoid valves (microvalves) to deposit cells suspended in media in a consistent and repeatable manner. In this case, MSCs and chondrocytes have been sequentially printed into an insert-based transwell system in order to create a laminar co-culture, with variations in the ratios of the cell types used to investigate the potential for MSCs to stimulate ECM production. Histological and indirect immunofluorescence staining revealed the formation of dense tissue structures within the chondrocyte and MSC-chondrocyte cell co-cultures, alongside the establishment of a proliferative region at the base of the tissue. No stimulatory or inhibitory effect in terms of ECM production was observed through the introduction of MSCs, although the potential for an immunomodulatory benefit remains. This study, therefore, provides a novel method to enable the scalable production of therapeutically relevant micro-tissue models that can be used for in vitro research to optimise ACI procedures.

Reliable inkjet printing of chondrocytes and MSCs using reservoir agitation.

Drop-on-demand (DoD) inkjet printing has been explored for a range of applications, including those to selectively deposit cellular material, due to the high accuracy and scalability of such systems when compared with alternative bioprinting techniques. Despite this, there remain considerable limitations when handling cell suspensions due to the agglomeration and sedimentation of cells during printing, leading to a deterioration in jetting performance. The objective of this work was to design and assess the effectiveness of a custom agitation system to maintain cellular dispersion within the ink reservoir during printing. The cell printing performance of an inkjet printer was assessed with and without the use of a custom agitation system, with biological characterisation performed to characterise the impact of the agitator on cellular viability and function. Cell printing performance was retained over a 2 h printing period when incorporating an agitated reservoir, with a gradual reduction in performance observed under a non-agitated configuration. Cell assays indicated that the agitation process did not significantly affect the viability, metabolic activity or morphology of the mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) or chondrocyte cell types. This study therefore provides a new methodology to increase process reliability within DoD printing platforms when jetting cellularised material.

60-Hertz electric-field exposures in transmission line towers.

This article reports on an investigation of 60-Hz electric-field exposures of line workers in 230- to 765-kV transmission line towers. The exposures were based on computations of the unperturbed electric field along climbing routes and at work positions on the towers and on insulated ladders suspended in towers. Computed exposures were expressed in terms of the unperturbed electric field averaged over the body as stipulated by guidelines. For the realistic on-tower positions, the worker's posture, the uniformity of the field, and the field orientation differed from the guideline exposure scenario of standing erect in a vertical uniform field. These differences suggest the need for care in comparing electric-field exposures in towers with guideline limits. The unperturbed nonuniform fields at discrete points near steel and aluminum lattice structures were computed using Monte Carlo methods that model surface and spatial electric fields on and near standard geometrical elements. To estimate a whole-body average, fields were computed at 10 discrete points positioned on segments of an articulated stick-figure model of the human body. The whole-body average field was computed from fields at all the points weighted by the fraction of body volume that the corresponding segment represented. We estimated the average unperturbed electric field, the space potential at the torso, and the induced short-circuit current for 19 climbing and work positions in six towers. The maximum average electric-field exposure during climbing ranged from 10 kV/m for a 230-kV tower to 31 kV/m for a 765-kV tower. Exposures at on-tower work positions were lower than the estimated maximum exposures during climbing. For 500- and 765-kV towers, computed exposures while climbing and at some on-tower positions exceeded the limit of 20 kV/m given in the recently adopted IEEE Standard C95.6 2002. For lower voltage towers, exposures did not exceed 20 kV/m.