Shoji Takeuchi

collabrators:
Yuya Morimoto, Yukiko Tsuda

affiliations:
BEANS Project, NEDO & Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo

We have demonstrated a 5-millimeter tall doll by stacking cellular beads in a three-dimensional(3D) mold. Since this method allows us to fabricate three-dimensional in vivo like tissue structures, it can be applicable in the fields of regenerative medicine and drug development.
To prepare the celluar bead that is a hydrogel beads coated with cells, we used an axisymmetric flow-focusing device (AFFD) for producing monodisperse micro collagen beads. We then seeded 3T3 cells on the surface of the collagen beads.
By putting these capsules in a 3D chamber and incubating them, we successfully established complicated and milli-sized 3D structures. For a duration of 24 hours, about 100,000 cell capsules of 3T3 cell coated 100-micrometer collagen beads were cultivated inside a human-like-shaped mold.
Once the cell capsules had coalesced to form the human-like-shaped mass of the cellular beads (5 mm tall), it was placed in a culture solution and can be handled by tweezers without breaking. We believe that various shapes can be possible by just changing the shape of the mold. This method is very useful for creating more complex system that functions as a living organism by combining multiple types of cells.

The “Cell Doll” is exhibited in the Ars Electronica Center Biolab.