Research on vascular occlusion during cell injection for organ creation using microfluidic channels

The number of patients awaiting liver transplantation is increasing, but organ availability remains insufficient, leading to patient deaths during the wait. Decellularization technology offers hope by creating artificial organs. However, recellularization which injects multiple cell types via blood vessels, is essential for functionality provokes cell stagnation and blockages in vascular branches. In this study, we visualized cell-flow within vessel-branches and analyzed pressure and flow during cell injection process by two methods. The one is CFD-DEM coupled simulation in Y-shaped branch model. The other one is an experimental system, which is composed by Polydimethylsiloxane (:PDMS) microchannel, syringe pump, zoom-lens and high-speed camera. In both two methods, vascular occlusion was observed.