Versatile, Fully Automated, Microfluidic Cell Culture System

Abstract

There is increasing demand for automated and quantitative cell culture technology, driven both by the intense activity in stem cell biology and by the emergence of systems biology. We built a fully automated cell culture screening system based on a microfluidic chip that creates arbitrary culture media formulations in 96 independent culture chambers and maintains cell viability for weeks. Individual culture conditions are customized in terms of cell seeding density, composition of culture medium, and feeding schedule, and each chamber is imaged with time-lapse microscopy. Using this device, we perform the first quantitative measurements of the influence of transient stimulation schedules on the proliferation, osteogenic differentiation, and motility of human primary mesenchymal stem cells.

Nuclear Envelope Composition Determines the Ability of Neutrophil-type Cells to Passage through Micron-scale Constrictions

“…We drove the flow of cells by applying 28 kilopascals (4 p.s.i.) of pressure to a tube of 2.5 ϫ 10 6 cells/ml with 0.1% F127 (Pluoronic F-127, Invitrogen) to minimize surface adhesion (20). Images were acquired at 300 frames/s with a high speed camera (Miro ex4, Vision Research, Wayne, NJ) mounted on an inverted light microscope (Zeiss Observer) with 10ϫ/0.25 Ph1 objective (A-Plan, Zeiss).…”

Review on Impedance Detection of Cellular Responses in Micro/Nano Environment

“…Human carcinoma (HeLa) cells were cultured in 10 × 10 microfluidic cell culture array and able to grow to confluency after eight days. Moreover, a fully automated cell culture screening system was developed and demonstrated on maintaining cell viability for weeks [22]. Individual culture conditions in 96 independent culture chambers can be customized in terms of cell seeding density, composition of culture medium, and feeding schedule.…”

Label‐Free and Regenerative Electrochemical Microfluidic Biosensors for Continual Monitoring of Cell Secretomes

“…To achieve these requirements, the EC biosensor was integrated into a microfluidic chip, which had 13 inlet microchannels (red lines) with hemicylindrical shapes and their associated microvalves (green line) for manipulating the injection of required reagents and samples ( Figure 3 a–c and Figure S7a, Supporting Information). The rounded design improved the closing of the microfluidic channels by blocking them with the programmed N 2 gas‐actuated microvalves, specifically for ethanol‐based reagents such as SAM (Figure 3d) 37. The microvalves and the reagent reservoirs were controlled by WAGO controllers with a custom‐written MATLAB code (Figure S9, Supporting Information, and Figure 3e), indicated by the time‐lapse images of the liquid flow through microfluidic channels and the detection chamber upon opening and closing of the valves.…”