Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a kind of nanobiomaterial for tissue engineering. How the nanoscale structure of BC affects skin wound repair is unexplored. Here, the hierarchical structure of BC films and their different effects on skin wound healing were studied both in vitro and in vivo. The bottom side of the BC film had a larger pore size, and a looser and rougher structure than that of the top side. By using a microfluidics-based in vitro wound healing model, we revealed that the bottom side of the BC film can better promote the migration of cells to facilitate wound healing. Furthermore, the full-thickness skin wounds on Wistar rats demonstrated that, compared with gauze and the top side of the BC film, the wound covered by the bottom side of the BC film showed faster recovery rate and less inflammatory response. The results indicate that the platform based on the microfluidic chip provide a rapid, reliable, and repeatable method for wound dressing screening. As an excellent biomaterial for wound healing, the BC film displays different properties on different sides, which not only provides a method to optimize the biocompatibility of wound dressings but also paves a new way to building heterogeneous BC-based biomaterials for complex tissue engineering.
Microfluidic platforms capable of automated, rapid, sensitive, and quantitative detection of biomarkers from patient samples could make a major impact on clinical or point-of-care (POC) diagnosis. In this work, we realize an automated diagnostic platform composed of two main components: (1) a disposable, self-contained, and integrated microfluidic chip and (2) a portable instrument that carries out completely automated operations. To demonstrate its potential for real-world application, we use injection molding for mass fabrication of the main components of disposable microfluidic chips. The assembled three-layered chip with on-chip mechanical valves for fluid control consists of (1) a top silicone fluidic layer with embedded zigzag microchannels, reagent reservoirs and a negative pressure port, (2) a middle tinfoil layer with patterned antibody/antigen stripes, and (3) a bottom silicone substrate layer with waste reservoirs. The versatility of the microfluidics-based system is demonstrated by implementation of a chemiluminescence immunoassay for quantitative detection of C-reactive protein (CRP) and testosterone in real clinical samples. This lab-on-a-chip platform with features of quantitation, portability and automation provides a promising strategy for POC diagnosis.
We report a hierarchically structured microchip combined with an automated and portable device for dynamic multiplexed immunoassays. Our system can detect multiple biomarkers from pg mL−1 to μg mL−1 spanning a dynamic range of 10 orders of magnitude.
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