In-vitro rapid centimeter-scale reconstruction of lobule-mimetic liver tissue employing dielectrophoresis-based cell patterning

A lobule-mimetic cell-patterning technique for on-chip reconstructing centimeter-scale liver tissue of heterogeneous hepatic and endothelial cells via the enhanced field-induced dielectrophoresis (DEP) trap is demonstrated and reported. By mimicking the basic morphology of the liver tissue, the classic hepatic lobule, the lobule-mimetic-stellate-electrodes array is designed for cell patterning via DEP operation. Through the vertical positive DEP manipulation, well-defined and enhanced spatial electric field gradients are created for in-parallel manipulating of massive individual cells. Experiment results show that both hepatic and endothelial cells are orderly guided, snared, and aligned along the field-induced orientation to from the lobule-mimetic pattern containing of multiple radial hepatic cell-strings interlaced with radial endothelial cell-strings. About 95% cell viability of hepatic and endothelial cells is also observed after cell-patterning demonstration via the fluorescent assay technique.