| 초록 |
Recent studies based on microfluidic devices have created in vitro models of tubular organs, e.g. vasculature, bronchus, etc. that recapitulate fluidic as well as (bio)chemical properties, and – although largely limited in the present stage – even functions of the highly complex in vivo system, allowing a great level of simplification in studying their physiological/pathological behaviors with a significantly reduced number of variables. Interestingly, temporal changes in the internal micro-structures of tubular organs are known to highly relate to function or pathological state of tubular organs, i.e. atherosclerosis, asthma, etc. In light of this, we present the development of a soft tubular microfluidic device (STuFl) made of polymer hydrogel, which, besides mimicking the fluidic, (bio)chemical, and mechanical characteristics of tubular organs, is able to temporally generate micro-structures at internal walls, and therefore, mimicking morphological characteristics of related disease. |
