Fabrication and Integration of a Low-cost 3D Printing-based Glucose
Biosensor for Bioprinted Liver-on-a-chip
Abstract
In the last two decades, there have been significant advancements in the
development of more physiologically relevant organ-on-a-chip (OOC)
systems that can mimic the tissue microenvironment. Despite the
advantages of these microphysiological systems, such as portability, the
ability to mimic physiological flow conditions, and the reduction of
reagents required for preparation and detection, they lack real-time
detection of analytes with high accuracy. To address this, biosensor
technologies have been integrated with OOC systems to enable
simultaneous analysis of different analytes in a single device. However,
integrating biosensors with OOC systems is challenging due to the
competing demands for low-cost, simple fabrication processes, and speed.
This study presents the fabrication of a glucose sensing device
integrated with a liver-on-a-chip (LOC) platform. The conductive
PLA-based three-electrode system was printed using FDM 3D printing
technology to simplify the fabrication process. The sensitivity of the
glucose biosensing device was enhanced by adding multi-walled carbon
nanotubes on the electrodes. The biosensing integration study using a
perfusion-based LOC showed the stability, biocompatibility, and
sensitivity of the glucose sensing devices. Furthermore, drug toxicity
studies on the LOC platform demonstrated the device’s ability to detect
a broad range of glucose concentrations and its enhanced sensitivity.