Fabrication of cell-encapsulating hollow collagen microgel beads for engineered hollow tissues

This paper presents fabrication process of cell-encapsulating hollow collagen microgel beads, which enables stable and large-scale production of hollow tissue models. The microgel beads feature a core–shell structure, with a liquid core containing a cell suspension and a collagen shell serving as a scaffold. Cells encapsulated within the core adhere to the inner collagen wall, leading to the formation of a defined hollow tissue. We demonstrated this by fabricating beads with encapsulated human umbilical vein endothelial cells, which successfully adhered to the inner surface. These results suggest that this approach geometrically guides the cells into a hollow structure, facilitating the engineered construction of hollow tissue architectures. The cell-encapsulating hollow collagen microgel beads are promising tools for reproducing pathological models of hollow organs for drug evaluation.