Departament Biologia Cel.lular, Fisiologia i Immunologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193-Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
Biomed Microdevices. 2010 Jun;12(3):371-9. doi: 10.1007/s10544-009-9393-6.
Microchips can be fabricated, using semiconductor technologies, at microscopic level to be introduced into living cells for monitoring of intracellular parameters at a single cell level. As a first step towards intracellular chips development, silicon and polysilicon microparticles of controlled shape and dimensions were fabricated and introduced into human macrophages and mouse embryos by phagocytosis and microinjection, respectively. Microparticles showed to be non-cytotoxic for macrophages and were found to be localized mainly inside early endosomes, in tight association with endosomal membrane, and more rarely in acidic compartments. Embryos with microinjected microparticles developed normally to the blastocyst stage, confirming the non-cytotoxic effect of the particles. In view of these results silicon and polysilicon microparticles can serve as the frame for future intracellular chips development and this technology opens the possibility of real complex devices to be used as sensors or actuators inside living cells.
微芯片可以采用半导体技术在微观尺度上制造，然后引入活细胞中，以在单细胞水平监测细胞内参数。作为开发细胞内芯片的第一步，我们分别采用吞噬作用和显微注射的方法，成功地制造出了具有可控形状和尺寸的硅和多晶硅微颗粒，并将其引入人巨噬细胞和小鼠胚胎中。微颗粒对巨噬细胞显示出非细胞毒性，并且主要发现定位于早期内体中，与内体膜紧密结合，较少情况下存在于酸性隔室中。注射了微颗粒的胚胎正常发育到囊胚阶段，证实了颗粒的非细胞毒性作用。鉴于这些结果，硅和多晶硅微颗粒可用作未来细胞内芯片开发的框架，并且这项技术为在活细胞中用作传感器或执行器的真正复杂设备开辟了可能性。
