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Fabrication of flexible thin polyurethane membrane for tissue engineering applications

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Abstract

Thin and flexible polymeric membranes play a critical role in tissue engineering applications for example organs-on-a-chip. These flexible membranes can enable mechanical stretch of the engineered tissue to mimic organ-specific biophysical features, such as breathing. In this work, we report the fabrication of thin (<20 μm), stretchable, and biocompatible polyurethane (PU) membranes. The membranes were fabricated using spin coating technique on silicon substrates and were mounted on a frame for ease of device integration and handling. The membranes were characterized for their optical and elastic properties and compatibility with cell/tissue culture. It was possible to apply up to 10 kilopascal (kPa) pressure to perform cyclic stretch on 4 mm-diameter membranes for a period of 2 weeks at 0.2 hertz (Hz) frequency without mechanical failure. Adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial (A549) cells were cultured on the apical side of the PU membrane. The morphology and viability of the cells were comparable to those of cells cultured on standard tissue culture plates. Our experiments suggest that the stretchable PU membrane will be broadly useful for various tissue engineering applications in vitro.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge, Aaron Anderson from physical chemistry & applied spectroscopy, LANL, Quinn Mcculloch from MPA-CINT: Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, LANL, Tito Busani from Center for High Technology Materials, UNM, and Microfabrication support from the P21. This work was supported by DTRA Interagency Agreement (IA) CMBXCEL-XLI-2-0001. This work utilized shared resources at UNM including CHTM research Facility, CINT-LANL, Bioscience LANL.

Public release: J9-16-1398, LA-UR-16-29177.

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Author notes

  1. Dr. Jennifer Harris, Dr. Pulak Nath and Dr. Rashi Iyer contributed equally as co-corresponding authors

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanoscience and Microsystems Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    A. Arefin

  2. Bioscience Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA

    A. Arefin & J. F. Harris

  3. National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    J-H. Huang

  4. Applied Modern Physics Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA

    D. Platts & P. Nath

  5. New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM, USA

    V. D. Hypes

  6. Systems Analysis and Surveillance Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA

    R. Iyer

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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to J. F. Harris, R. Iyer or P. Nath.

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Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary Video 1

Handling of thin PU membranes. PU membranes with 15 μm in thickness were fabricated on Si wafer. In order to transfer the membranes on cell culture devices, it is necessary to release the membrane from the wafer without any disruption. (A) Shows the difficulty of releasing or peeling the PU membrane from the silicon wafer; (B) Shows the peeling processes of PU from the wafer. The PU membrane was cut into 1 × 1 cm using a knife and the whole wafer was submerged under DI water overnight. Using a tweezer it was possible to peel the membrane from the wafer without any damage; (C) Shows how to flatten the PU membrane on a flat glass surface using a cotton swab; (D) Shows securing the membrane between two PET layers. (MP4 10,847 kb)

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Arefin, A., Huang, JH., Platts, D. et al. Fabrication of flexible thin polyurethane membrane for tissue engineering applications. Biomed Microdevices 19, 98 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-017-0236-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-017-0236-6

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