In Vitro Artery Model with Circumferentially Aligned & Contractible Smooth Muscle by Unfixed Molding & Screwing Fabrication

This paper describes a fabrication method of an artery model with circumferentially aligned and contractible smooth muscle cells (SMCs) by unfixed molding and screwing processes. The fabricated aligned smooth muscle is well-deformable, enabling the flexible contraction in biological reaction. The axially aligned fiber-shaped smooth muscle tissue was formed by unfixed molding and screwed up to be aligned circumferentially. Also, the SMC layer was covered with a collagen layer with connectors to enable co-culture with endothelial cells (ECs) and perfusion culture. The alignment of SMCs was visibly confirmed, and the ability to reproduce the biochemical contraction was proved by an inflammatory reaction. We believe that our novel fabrication method would contribute to the development of functional smooth muscle models for biomedical researches.