Stretchable culture device of skin-equivalent with improved epidermis thickness

Abstract

This conference proceeding describes a device for culturing skin-equivalent with vascular channels under dynamic stretching. The culture device is composed of a frame made of silicone rubber (polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/Ecoflex <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">®</sup> composite) and synthetic resin connections for tubing. Owing to the flexibility of silicone rubber, we can culture skin-equivalents not only perfusing medium but also applying stretching forces for various directions. Moreover, we applied a 1-axial cyclic force to the skin-equivalent during perfusion culture. As a result, we observed a thicker epidermis of the stretched skin-equivalent than that of not-stretched one. Since the epidermis thickness is known as an important factor for the tensile strength of skin-equivalents, we believe that the device will enable the fabrication of robust skin-equivalents with vascular channels useful for drugs/cosmetics testing, skin grafting and skin of biohybrid robots.