Poster #: 104
Cytocompatibility of Tissue-Scale Bicontinuous Interconnected Scaffolds
Mentors: Prince David Okoro, PhD
The engineering of in vitro tissue models has highlighted a persistent challenge in scalability. Many traditional biomaterials lack the interconnected porous architecture essential for efficient nutrient diffusion and often do not present biomimetic topographical motifs. Bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gel (bijel) scaffolds address this by providing micro-textured surfaces within interconnected domains, which we have shown to facilitate nutrient transport and serve as an instructive niche for neural, cardiac, and liver cells. However, scaling these to tissue-level constructs raises concerns about the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant, which stabilizes the bicontinuous morphology but also presents cytotoxic effects. To address this, we optimized processing temperatures for CTAB removal from millimeter-scale constructs, then quantified residual CTAB content and analyzed cell viability via optical microscopy and live/dead assays. Our results showed that cell viability and proliferation were directly dependent on the processing temperature, demonstrating our platform’s scalability and suitability for advanced tissue engineering.