Suspended Tissue Open Microfluidic Patterning (STOMP)
Free-standing tissue structures tethered between pillars are powerful mechanobiology tools for studying cell contraction. To model interfaces ubiquitous in natural tissues and upgrade existing single-region suspended constructs, we developed Suspended Tissue Open Microfluidic Patterning (STOMP), a method to create multi-regional suspended tissues. STOMP uses open microfluidics and capillary pinning to pattern subregions within free-standing tissues, facilitating the study of complex tissue interfaces, such as diseased-healthy boundaries (e.g., fibrotic-healthy) and tissue-type interfaces (e.g., bone-ligament). We observed altered contractile dynamics in fibrotic-healthy engineered heart tissues compared to single-region tissues and differing contractility in bone-ligament enthesis constructs compared to single-tissue periodontal ligament models. STOMP is a versatile platform - surface tension-driven patterning removes material requirements common with other patterning methods (e.g., shear-thinning, photopolymerizable) allowing tissue generation in multiple geometries with native extracellular matrices and advanced four-dimensional (4D) materials. STOMP combines the contractile functionality of suspended tissues with precise patterning, enabling dynamic and spatially controlled studies.
Authors
- Stephen J. Tapscott (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0319-0968)
- Priti Mulimani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7488-0192)
- Asha R. Viswanathan
- Ruby M. Padgett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9693-446X)
- Irina Kopyeva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3740-6971)
- Ross C. Bretherton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9567-8556)
- Cole A. DeForest (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0337-3577)
- Alex J. Goldstein
- Lauren G. Brown (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5932-2691)
- Amanda J. Haack (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0066-7556)
- Jodie C. Tokihiro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0958-2249)
- Tracy E. Popowics (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2981-0309)
- Nathan J. Sniadecki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6960-4492)
- Ariel Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0443-3987)
- Ashleigh B. Theberge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3394-1435)
- Erwin Berthier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4421-9034)
- Thomas Leahy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2749-6021)
- Natalie A. Mazzawi
- Ella E. Bouker
- Jamison M. Whitten
- Jean Berthier
- Serena H. Nguyen
- Aaliyah Wu
Institutions
- California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Fred Hutch Cancer Center (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Science
- Published
- 2025-04-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202501148
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- 3D Printing in Biomedical Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.70
Funders
- National Institutes of Health