Collagen Rope Trick: Cell-Laden Fibre Assembly at Liquid Interfaces

Tissues and organs in living organisms represent centimeter-scale hierarchical architectures comprising nano-to microscale, uniaxially aligned extracellular matrix (ECM) fibres with high mechanical strength, integrated with cellular components, as exemplified in tendon, skin, cartilage, bone, and blood vessels ¹ . Here, we present a liquid–liquid interfacial spinning method to produce highly uniaxially aligned, centimeter-scale collagen fibres. The dried fibres exhibit exceptional mechanical properties, with fracture strength of 280 MPa, Young’s modulus of 6 GPa, and toughness of 17 MJ m⁻³, comparable to spider silk and tendon collagen, and exceeding supramolecular and double-network hydrogels ¹ . Incorporating living cells into the collagen solution yielded centimeter-scale, cell-laden aligned fibres, with densely adherent, uniaxially aligned cells and over 80% viability. Myoblast-laden fibres recapitulate biological features of fibrotic muscle tissues, as observed in type II diabetes ² . Interfacial collagen assembly further enables fabrication of dimension-controlled constructs, like 2D sheets, 0D capsules, and 1D tubes, thus providing modular building blocks for centimeter-scale 3D tissues and organ-like structures. This approach offers a versatile platform to engineer mechanically robust, cell-laden tissues with controlled hierarchical architecture.