Influence of the block hydrophilicity of AB2 miktoarm star copolymers on cluster formation in solutions.

We investigated the formation of various micelle shapes of lipid-like amphiphilic AB(2) miktoarm star copolymers in a solution, by performing dissipative particle dynamics simulations. AB(2) miktoarm star copolymer molecules are modeled with coarse-grained structures that consist of a relatively hydrophilic head (A) group with a single arm and a hydrophobic tail (B) group with double arms. A decrease in the hydrophilicity of the head group leads to a reduction of the polymer-solvent contact area, causing cluster structure changes from spherical micelles to vesicles. Consequently, a spherical exterior with multi-lamellar or cylindrical phase interior structures forms under poor solvent conditions without the introduction of spherical hard-wall containers. Furthermore we observed that, for small head group lengths, vesicles were formed in much wider range of solvent-head interaction strength than for long head groups, indicating that molecules with short head group offer a superior vesicle forming property. A phase diagram, the structure and kinetics of the cluster formation, a density profile, and a detailed shape analysis are presented to discuss the molecular characteristics of potential candidates for drug carriers that require superior and versatile vesicle forming properties. We also show that, under certain solvent-hydrophilic head group interaction conditions, initially formed cylindrical micelles transform to bilayer fragments through redistribution of copolymers within the cluster.

Enhanced oxygen permeability in membrane-bottomed concave microwells for the formation of pancreatic islet spheroids.

Oxygen availability is a critical factor in regulating cell viability that ultimately contributes to the normal morphogenesis and functionality of human tissues. Among various cell culture platforms, construction of 3D multicellular spheroids based on microwell arrays has been extensively applied to reconstitute in vitro human tissue models due to its precise control of tissue culture conditions as well as simple fabrication processes. However, an adequate supply of oxygen into the spheroidal cellular aggregation still remains one of the main challenges to producing healthy in vitro spheroidal tissue models. Here, we present a novel design for controlling the oxygen distribution in concave microwell arrays. We show that oxygen permeability into the microwell is tightly regulated by varying the poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) bottom thickness of the concave microwells. Moreover, we validate the enhanced performance of the engineered microwell arrays by culturing non-proliferated primary rat pancreatic islet spheroids on varying bottom thickness from 10 µm to 1050 µm. Morphological and functional analyses performed on the pancreatic islet spheroids grown for 14 days prove the long-term stability, enhanced viability, and increased hormone secretion under the sufficient oxygen delivery conditions. We expect our results could provide knowledge on oxygen distribution in 3-dimensional spheroidal cell structures and critical design concept for tissue engineering applications. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: In this study, we present a noble design to control the oxygen distribution in concave microwell arrays for the formation of highly functional pancreatic islet spheroids by engineering the bottom of the microwells. Our new platform significantly enhanced oxygen permeability that turned out to improve cell viability and spheroidal functionality compared to the conventional thick-bottomed 3-D culture system. Therefore, we believe that this could be a promising medical biotechnology platform to further develop high-throughput tissue screening system as well as in vivo-mimicking customised 3-D tissue culture systems.