John A Rector IV’s research while affiliated with Vanderbilt University and other places

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Publications (1)

Advantages of Solvent-Spun Soluplus® Microfiber Patterning. Soluplus® is a thermoresponsive polymer which can be processed into fibers with diameters at the capillary scale, while remaining mechanical strong enough to be manipulated and positioned in tissue culture systems. The solvent spinning process is able to take this polymer and produce large quantities of microfiber meshes with a tortuous, 3D architecture and round lumens. These meshes are then embedded and removed from the system without harsh, cytotoxic processes, enabling the patterning of thick artificial tissues with endothelialized microvasculature. Illustration made using Biorender.com.
Schematic of fabrication process for microvascularized hydrogel devices. (A) Microfibers are solvent spun, (B) loaded into PDMS frames, (C) embedded in mTG-gelatin, (D) cooled below LCST to dissolve, and (E) flushed out of crosslinked hydrogel. Microvascularized hydrogels can then be (E) seeded with ECs and (F) attached to perfusion.
Characterization of the engineered microvascular architecture. (A) A skeletonized microchannel network with entire channel volume overlayed in grey. The heatmap displays the diameter of the channel associated with each skeleton voxel. Units for all axes and heatbars are in μm. (B) Sample histograms of architectural features extracted from one ROI in a single device. The diameter histogram shows a distribution of skeleton voxels, and the tortuosity and branch length histograms show a distribution of branches. (C) Box and whisker plots of architectural features extracted from multiple devices. Black bars show the interquartiles of individual regions of interest, with circles showing the median. Blue rectangles show the interquartiles for the compiled data of all regions of interest in each device, with red line showing the median and whiskers showing 1.5× the interquartile range, containing approximately 95% of data points.
Montage of HUVEC-lined channels, stained with Calcein AM. HUVECs spreading in channels at days 1, 9, and 17 post-seeding. Scale bars are 250 μm.
HUVEC-lined channels, stained with Calcein AM and imaged with 20× objective. Channels imaged at day 21 post-seeding. Arrows indicate channels with diameters of (1) 12.6 μm, (2) 19.8 μm, and (3) 14.2 μm.

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Fabrication of endothelialized capillary-like microchannel networks using sacrificial thermoresponsive microfibers
  • Article
  • Full-text available

November 2024

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20 Reads

John A Rector IV

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Lucas McBride

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Callie M Weber

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[...]

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Leon M Bellan

In the body, capillary beds fulfill the metabolic needs of cells by acting as the sites of diffusive transport for vital gasses and nutrients. In artificial tissues, replicating the scale and complexity of capillaries has proved challenging, especially in a three-dimensional context. In order to better develop thick artificial tissues, it will be necessary to recreate both the form and function of capillaries. Here we demonstrate a top–down method of patterning hydrogels using sacrificial templates formed from thermoresponsive microfibers whose size and architecture approach those of natural capillaries. Within the resulting microchannels, we cultured endothelial monolayers that remain viable for over three weeks and exhibited functional barrier properties. Additionally, we cultured endothelialized microchannels within hydrogels containing fibroblasts and characterized the viability of the co-cultures to demonstrate this approach’s potential when applied to cell-laden hydrogels. This method represents a step forward in the evolution of artificial tissues and a path towards producing viable capillary-scale microvasculature for engineered organs.

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