Actively Controllable Stem Cell Spheroid-based Microrobot for Tissue Regeneration

In this paper, actively controllable stem cell spheroid-based microrobot is proposed to improve targeting the stem cells to specific desired sites using external electromagnetic actuation (EMA) system. Mouse mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs) were labeled with 0.2 mg/ml magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and no cytotoxicity was observed up to MNPs concentration of 0.2 mg/ml on 2D and 3D culture. The stem cell spheroids were fabricated with diameters of 353.62 μm ± 24.61 (MNP unlabeled) and 336.84 μm ± 28.2 (MNP labeled) by ultra-low attachment plate culture. In addition, mouse MSCs spheroids were actively controlled by the EMA system. Therefore, these results demonstrated that stem cell spheroid-based microrobot can be potential therapeutic agent for tissue regeneration or repairing, such as, articular cartilage regeneration.