A high-throughput three-dimensional cell culture platform for drug screening

Traditional two-dimensional (2D) cell cultures lack the extracellular matrix (ECM)-like structure or dynamic fluidic microenvironment for cells to maintain in vivo functionality. Three-dimensional (3D) tissue scaffolds, on the other hand, could provide the ECM-like microenvironment for cells to reformulate into tissue or organoids that are highly useful for in vitro drug screening. In this study, a high-throughput two-chamber 3D microscale tissue model platform is developed. Porous scaffolds are selectively foamed on a commercially available compact disk using laser. Perfusion of cell culture medium is achieved with centrifugal force-driven diffusion by disk rotation. Experimental studies were conducted on the fabrication process under various gas saturation and laser power conditions. Cell cultures were performed with two types of human cell lines: M059K and C3A-sub28. It is shown that the structure of microscale porous scaffolds can be controlled with laser foaming parameters and that coating with polydopamine these scaffolds are inducive for cell attachment and aggregation, forming a 3D network. With many such two-chamber models fabricated on a single CD and perfusion driven by the centrifugal force from rotation, the proposed platform provides a simple solution to the high-cost and lengthy drug development process with a high-throughput and physiologically more relevant tissue model system.