A palmtop‐sized microfluidic cell culture system driven by a miniaturized infusion pump

Abstract

A palmtop-sized microfluidic cell culture system is presented. The system consists of a microfluidic device and a miniaturized infusion pump that possesses a reservoir of culture medium, an electrical control circuit, and an internal battery. The footprint of the system was downsized to 87 × 57 mm, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the smallest integrated cell culture system. Immortalized human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were cultured in the system. HMEC-1 in the system proliferated at the same speed as cells in a microchannel perfused by a syringe pump and cells in a culture flask. HUVEC in the system oriented along the direction of the fluid flow. Claudin-5, a tight junction protein, was localized along the peripheries of the HUVEC. We expect that the present system is applicable to various cell types as a stand-alone and easy-to-use system for microfluidic bioanalysis.

Fluidic Culture and Analysis of Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cells for the Study of Pulmonary Hypertension

“…Recently, microfluidic cell culture systems have been developed to sustain functionality of living organs. [8][9][10][11] In the area of vascular research, there are reports of vascular endothelial cell culture within a microchannel 12,13 and binding of leucocytes and endothelial cells.…”

A Membrane-integrated Microfluidic Device to Study Permeation of Nanoparticles through Straight Micropores toward Rational Design of Nanomedicines

“…Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS, SILPOT 184, Dow Corning, Midland, MI, USA) was used to prepare substrates (23 × 18 mm) with recessed microchannel patterns (300 μm width, 67 μm depth, 10 mm length) as described elsewhere. 12 A 1.0 μm-pore membrane was integrated into a microfluidic device as follows. First, a PDMS-hexane mixture with a weight ratio of 10 (prepolymer):1 (curing agent):33 (hexane), referred to as PDMS mortar, was spin-coated on a glass slide at 2000 rpm for 30 s, and left for 10 min at room temperature to allow the hexane to evaporate.…”

“…9,10 The size of a microfluidic channel can be adjusted to that of a microvessel, and various vascular cells can be cultured in the channel under blood flow-like flow conditions. [11][12][13] In one approach, a porous membrane was integrated into a microfluidic device and utilized to evaluate the permeability of an endothelial monolayer on the membrane against fluorescein isothiocyanatelabeled bovine serum albumin (FITC-BSA) [14][15][16] and lipid-coated nanoparticles. 16 However, the pores within the monolayer are irregular in size and shape, as shown in previous studies.…”

Microfluidics-based in situ Padlock/Rolling Circle Amplification System for Counting Single DNA Molecules in a Cell

“…The microfluidic devices were fabricated as previously reported, 24 with minor modifications (Fig. 1b).…”