Engineering Qualification of Vat-Printed Organ-on-Chip Materials: Optical Background, Molecular Sorption, Gas Transport, Extractables and Microfluidic Fidelity
Segurola, Juan
2026-08-21 · Informe · Versión 1.4
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Vat photopolymerisation (VPP) provides a digitally direct route to microfluidic and organ-on-chip (OoC) devices with three-dimensional geometries, rapid design iteration and increasingly accessible equipment. However, the material requirements of OoC systems are substantially more demanding than geometric printability alone. A printed photopolymer may generate fluorescence background, attenuate excitation or emission light, absorb or adsorb test compounds, release residual reactive species, alter oxygen availability, change surface-mediated cell behaviour, or distort the intended channel geometry through cure broadening and trapped-resin effects. These mechanisms can bias the biological endpoint even when the device appears mechanically intact. This review synthesises primary evidence from VPP microfluidics, cell-culture devices and OoC platforms and organises the field around five qualification domains: optical background, molecular sorption and surface interactions, gas transport, extractables/cytocompatibility, and microfluidic fidelity. Recent studies demonstrate that no single material property can be used as a universal proxy for OoC suitability: post-processing can simultaneously alter conversion, transparency, cytocompatibility and mechanics; low sorption may come with different gas-transport behaviour; and high geometric resolution may require optical attenuation strategies that narrow the microscopy window. We therefore propose an assay-informed qualification sequence that starts with the intended biological readout and test compound, then validates the printed material, post-processing state, channel geometry and time-dependent exposure conditions as one coupled system. This framing distinguishes material qualification from generic biocompatibility and provides a basis for more reproducible comparison of vat-printed OoC platforms.