Abstract
Ink-jet technology is expected as a new technique for making artificial organs since minute droplets ejected from a small nozzle, whose size is several tens microns and in the order of cells, can be put precisely at high frequencies and a three-dimensional structure for cell proliferation may be built quickly through the two-dimensional patterning. The present study demonstrates the formation of a multi-layered gel structure as the scaffold using the ink-jet method. Small droplets of sodium alginate (Alg-Na) solution are ejected from a ink jet nozzle into calcium chloride (CaCl_2) solution to make microcapsules. Necessary conditions such as substrate preparation as well as solution concentrations and the distance between droplets for the gel structure formation are investigated experimentally.
