Microfluidics for mechanobiology of model organisms

Abstract

Mechanical stimuli play a critical role in organ development, tissue homeostasis, and disease. Understanding how mechanical signals are processed in multicellular model systems is critical for connecting cellular processes to tissue- and organism-level responses. However, progress in the field that studies these phenomena, mechanobiology, has been limited by lack of appropriate experimental techniques for applying repeatable mechanical stimuli to intact organs and model organisms. Microfluidic platforms, a subgroup of microsystems that use liquid flow for manipulation of objects, are a promising tool for studying mechanobiology of small model organisms due to their size scale and ease of customization. In this work, we describe design considerations involved in developing a microfluidic device for studying mechanobiology. Then, focusing on worms, fruit flies, and zebrafish, we review current microfluidic platforms for mechanobiology of multicellular model organisms and their tissues and highlight research opportunities in this developing field.

How Caenorhabditis elegans Senses Mechanical Stress, Temperature, and Other Physical Stimuli

“…Intracellular calcium responses generated in response to mechanical stimuli delivered by open-loop mechanical stimulators pushed into the ventral or dorsal side (TRNs, OLQ, CEP, FLP, PVD), down on the lateral aspect (ADL, ADE, PHB, ALA), or the tip of the nose (ASH) of animals immobilized by superglue are illustrated in Figure 2, A, B, and E, respectively. Closed-loop mechanical stimulators have yet to be applied in combination with calcium imaging.Microfluidics-based devices for delivering mechanical stimuli to freely moving or immobilized C. elegans nematodes are emerging as an additional approach (reviewed by Kim et al 2018, and summarized in Table 2). These include so-called artificial dirt chips that can test if C. elegans can distinguish between different textures (Han et al 2017), as well as devices that deliver mechanical stimuli to immobilized animals (Cho et al 2017; Nekimken et al 2017a), or to animals allowed to move within defined channels (McClanahan et al 2017).…”

“…Microfluidics-based devices for delivering mechanical stimuli to freely moving or immobilized C. elegans nematodes are emerging as an additional approach (reviewed by Kim et al 2018, and summarized in Table 2). These include so-called artificial dirt chips that can test if C. elegans can distinguish between different textures (Han et al 2017), as well as devices that deliver mechanical stimuli to immobilized animals (Cho et al 2017; Nekimken et al 2017a), or to animals allowed to move within defined channels (McClanahan et al 2017).…”

Endothelial cell polarization and orientation to flow in a novel microfluidic multimodal shear stress generator

“…the "labaround-the-chip." 54 . Such obstacles can be removed by miniaturization and on-chip integration of the equipment required to run the microfluidic systems.…”

Evaluating Nanoparticles in Preclinical Research Using Microfluidic Systems

“…Finally, NP uptake and toxicity profile could also be evaluated at small organism level using microfluidics. Currently microfluidic systems have been used to culture various small organisms such as zebrafish [139,140], C. elegans [141,142] and fruit flies [143]. Despite that some of these models have been applied for chemical evaluations [144,145,146], few have been adopted in NP evaluation.…”