Fabrication of Custom Agarose Wells for Cell Seeding and Tissue Ring Self-assembly Using 3D-Printed MoldsHannah A. Strobel 1, Elizabeth L. Calamari 1, Brittany Alphonse 1, Tracy A. Hookway 1,2, Marsha W. Rolle 1
1Biomedical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2Gladstone Institute for Cardiovascular Disease
This protocol describes a platform for fabricating self-assembled tissue rings in variable sizes using a customized 3D-printed plastic mold. PDMS negatives are cured in the 3D-printed mold; then agarose is cast in the cured PDMS negatives. Cells are seeded into the resulting agarose wells where they aggregate into tissue rings.