A polydimethylsiloxane–polycarbonate hybrid microfluidic device capable of generating perpendicular chemical and oxygen gradients for cell culture studies

摘要: This paper reports a polydimethylsiloxane–polycarbonate (PDMS–PC) hybrid microfluidic device capable of performing cell culture under combinations chemical and oxygen gradients. The is constructed two PDMS layers with channel patterns separated by thin membrane. top layer contains an embedded PC film serpentine for spatially confined scavenging reaction to generate gradient in the bottom culture. Using method, can be operated small amount chemicals, without bulky gas cylinders sophisticated flow control schemes. Furthermore, it directly used conventional incubators syringe pumps simplify system setup. arrangements channels generation chamber downstream. generated gradients are experimentally characterized using fluorescein solution oxygen-sensitive fluorescent dye, respectively. For demonstration, 48 hour cell-based drug test migration assay human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cells (A549) conducted various experiments. testing results show increase A549 apoptosis due hypoxia-activated cytotoxicity tirapazamine (TPZ) also suggest great compatibility controllability device. In addition, demonstrate aerotactic behavior that plays essential role guiding migration. results, chemokine gradients, cannot simply superposed single results. promising advance vitro microenvironments, better study cellular responses physiological conditions biomedical applications.