Developing an Off-the-Shelf Microfluidic Droplet Generation Device for Cell Encapsulation

Abstract

Droplet microfluidics is a platform of microfluidics in which two immiscible fluids are used to generate droplets for various biomedical applications. This platform introduces several advantages in applications such as cell lysis, cell culture, co-culture, and cell encapsulation. The most important issues regarding droplet generation devices are the fabrication complexity and maintenance of these devices. In this study, a simple and easy-tofabricate microdroplet generator is designed and fabricated to resolve these issues. Furthermore, since this device is easy to fabricate and use, it can play a key role in the fabrication of medical devices for controlling infectious diseases in poor and underdeveloped countries where 3D-printed and glass capillary devices have high final costs. The introduced droplet generator is an independent unit that is able to attach to any microfluidic chip and inject microdroplets into the device. This droplet generator is able to generate homogeneous droplets of various diameters, ranging from 50 to 2000 μm. This device is also efficient for single-and multi-cell encapsulation. When using a cell solution containing MCF-7 cells with a concentration of 100 cell/μL, 45.7% of droplets contain no cells, 49.3% of droplets contain one, two, or three cells, and 5% contain four or more cells. These results are perfectly in agreement with the results obtained from the Poisson distribution for cell encapsulation.

Simple Method for On-Demand Droplet Trapping in a Microfluidic Device Based on the Concept of Hydrodynamic Resistance

“…Nowadays, droplet generation and manipulation in microscales have various applications in chemical and biomedical engineering. , In this context, droplet-based microfluidics (DBM) provides widespread techniques and platforms . As some prominent examples, droplets generated in DBM are used as templates in single-cell analyses, − polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays, − organ-on-a-chip studies, − mixing of reagents, and detecting biologically active components. , In these applications, droplets are considered bioreactors, which are preferred to be sorted into different routes or immobilized in designated traps for further analysis. DBM is mainly admired for its ability to generate high-throughput monodisperse droplets and precisely capsulate substances. , However, selecting individual droplets from a large number of droplets and immobilizing them in predetermined situations are still challenging tasks in DBM.…”

A Novel Strategy for Square-Wave Micromixers: A Survey of RBC Lysis for Further Biological Analysis

“…Microfluidics, also known as lab-on-a-chip, is the science studying the flow behavior at the microscale. , Flow manipulation within microfluidic devices such as micromixers, − microdroplet generators, − and microseparators − is pursued to achieve the desired output. These systems have found their functionality in various biorelated analyses and engineering. − In many of these applications, efficient and well-controlled mixing is crucial in successfully satisfying the aim of the desired study. , Therefore, micromixers are one of the most pivotal parts of lab-on-a-chip systems.…”