Three-dimensional cell culture based on microfluidic techniques to mimic living tissues

Abstract

This mini-review consists of microfluidic fabrication methods of cellular spheroids and cell-laden hydrogels, and their applications for tissue engineering. Using microfluidic devices, cellular spheroids and cell-laden hydrogels with controllable design are formed reproducibly. Owing to their size uniformity, they are used as building blocks for bottom–up tissue engineering to construct uniform and arbitrarily shaped tissues. Thus, cellular spheroids and cell-laden hydrogels based on microfluidic techniques are powerful tools to create tissues for human implantation and the treatment of diseases.