Contact: Fabian Krull

Funding: DFG

Spheroids are 3D cell cultures, which, due to the 3D arrangement of the cells, reflect their natural physiological situation in tissues better than traditional 2D cell culture approaches. They are therefore very interesting for standardized in vitro approaches but also for clinical applications in the sense of personalized medicine. A variety of new applications for spheroids have since emerged, such as in the field of tissue engineering, where bio-printing by extrusion is a promising method. Despite the increasing use of spheroids in various biomedical applications, little is known about their biomechanical properties.

In this cooperation project with the Department of Trauma, Hand, and Reconstructive Surgery (Saarland University, Germany), the biomechanical properties of spheroids from normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF) are investigated experimentally depending on the cell number and the age of the spheroids by compression tests using a Nano- and Triboindenter (TI Premier, Bruker). The compression test are performed with a flat-punch with varying tests modes like displacement controlled compression or cyclic compression. Additionally, new contact models for the Discrete-Element-Method will be developed based on the experimental results to investigate the biomechanical behavior of spheroids depending on cell number and age in more detail.