Integrative Utilization of Microfluidic Devices and Biomaterials for Advanced Regenerative Medicine

Microfluidics systems have received much attention and shownexcessive capacity in the field of tissue engineering and regenerativemedicine. Studying cellular responses by microfluidic devices providemuch more accurate and comprehensive outcomes. In this work, wereport on a microfluidic-based device, which was used for analysis of thematrix density as a mechanical property and the concentration profileof a biochemical factor as a chemical property. The microfluidic deviceused in this investigation has a cell tank and a cell culture chamberto mimic both 2D to 3D and 3D to the 3D migration of three types ofcells. Fluid shear stress was found to be trivial on the cells, in which astable concentration gradient can be obtained by diffusion. The devicewas designed by a numerical simulation, and thus, the uniformity ofthe concentration gradients was obtained throughout the cell culturechamber. Adult neural cells were cultured in this device. The cultivatedcells displayed different branching and axonal navigation phenotypeswithin varying nerve growth factor (NGF) concentration profiles. Inaddition, neural stem cells (NSCs) were cultivated within varyingcollagen matrix densities while exposed to NGF concentrations and theyexperienced 2D to 3D collective migration. By the generating vascularendothelial growth factor (VEGF) concentration gradients, the adulthuman dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HDMVECs) migrated(in a 2D to a 3D manner) and formed a stable lumen within a specificcollagen matrix density. Altogether, a minimum absolute concentrationand concentration gradient was found to be required to stimulate the migration of all types of cells. Taken all, we believe that his device hasthe advantage of changing multiple parameters concurrently and isenvisioned to have wide applicability in cell studies.

کلیدواژه ها:

Microfluidic devices ، Cell migration ، Nerve growth factor ، Vascular endothelial growth factor