(1043-B) Uniform and Mass Production of Three-dimensional Cell Spheroids Using Precise Bioink Dispensing Technology

Abstract: The three-dimensional(3D) cell spheroids can simulate structures and microenvironments in vivo, such as tissues and organs, so it has a huge advantage over the two-dimensional(2D) cell culture of the laboratory environment. Recently, it has been used in various fields such as regenerative medicine through a tissue engineering approach and drug screening tool from an alternative animal testing. Conventional methods of producing cell spheroids are to use research products such as hanging-drop plates, spheroid plates, and spheroid dish etc. These methods have limitations such as relatively complex, time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive. Therefore, a production method, which has relative low cost, high productivity, and high size flexibility, is needed.
A spheroid printer(SPHRINTERTM, Sphebio Co., Ltd., Republic of Korea) was used for producing cell spheroids. Hydrogels mixed with single cells are dispensed in the form of droplets containing a uniform number of cells, and cell spheroids are naturally formed in the droplet structure within about two days. By controlling the cell concentration of a bioink, it is possible to produce various cell spheroids of the desired size, and uniform spheroids can be produced due to its low size error rate.
We developed a production technology using precise dispensing of a bioink and confirmed the potential to overcome existing limitations. The newly proposed cell spheroid production technology has great promise to use not only for laboratory-level research but also for clinical applications.