Magnetically Responsive Microflaps Reveal Cell Membrane Boundaries from Multiple Angles

Abstract

A microflap system to incline adherent cells in the desired orientation is described. Inclination angles of cell-laden microflaps are precisely controlled by the applied magnetic field, enabling us to observe cell-membrane boundaries from multiple angles. This system is equipped with conventional microscopes, allowing clear focused images of cell-membrane boundaries to be obtained with high magnification.

Fabrication of 3D Cellular Tissue Utilizing MEMS Technologies

“…In addition, cell non-adhesive coating on base substrate are often provided to promote selective cell adhesion on the microparts. Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) [12], 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) polymers [13][14][15][16]57], and Pluronic F127 [52] are known for cell non-adhesive materials.…”

Mobile Microplates for Morphological Control and Assembly of Individual Neural Cells

“…Fabrication of Mobile Microplates : Mobile microplates utilizing photolithography techniques (Figure 2 a) were fabricated as described elsewhere [29][30][31][32] with a slight modifi cation. Briefl y, fi rst a clean, surfacehydrophilic glass with acetone and isopropanol washing was prepared followed by O 2 plasma treatment.…”

“…Our group has reported circle or square shape mobile microplates that enabled handling adherent cells such as fi broblasts, [29][30][31][32] hepatocytes, [ 29,31 ] and muscle cells. [ 30 ] We newly designed microplates composed of a circle and several protruding linear arms to have a function to control the morphology of a neural cell and also to be applicable in neural circuit engineering ( Figure 1 ).…”

High‐Resolution Vertical Observation of Intracellular Structure Using Magnetically Responsive Microplates

“…The permalloy pieces were embedded in two parylene layers, so that the cells loaded on the microplates were not directly attached to the permalloy. [ 10 ] A bulge 100-150 nm deep was formed on the parylene surface because of the embedded permalloy piece. For release of the microplates, an alginate hydrogel sacrifi cial layer underneath the parylene layer was designed to be removed when inducing the enzymatic digestion.…”

“…[10] Even without the hinges, a high angle tunability and degrees of freedom in mobility were achieved by using three-axis coils, when equipped to any type of conventional microscopy including ordinal optical microscopes and ultraresolution microscopes. No hinges also shortened the distance between lens and the targeted cells, and saved the focal length, which enabled us to observe them with a high magnification and resolution.…”