Fukuda Junji, Takahashi Shintaro, Osaki Tatsuya, Mochizuki Naoto, Suzuki Hiroaki
Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8573, Japan.
Sci Technol Adv Mater. 2012 Oct 18;13(6):064201. doi: 10.1088/1468-6996/13/6/064201. eCollection 2012 Dec.
Plugs, i.e. droplets formed in a microchannel, may revolutionize microfluidic cell-based assays. This study describes a microdevice that handles nanolitre-scale liquid plugs for the preparation of various culture setups and subsequent cellular assays. An important feature of this mode of liquid operation is that the recirculation flow generated inside the plug promotes the rapid mixing of different solutions after plugs are merged, and it keeps cell suspensions homogeneous. Thus, serial dilutions of reagents and cell suspensions with different cell densities and cell types were rapidly performed using nanolitres of solution. Cells seeded through the plug processing grew well in the microdevice, and subsequent plug processing was used to detect the glucose consumption of cells and cellular responses to anticancer agents. The plug-based microdevice may provide a useful platform for cell-based assay systems in various fields, including fundamental cell biology and drug screening applications.
栓塞，即在微通道中形成的液滴，可能会彻底改变基于微流控细胞的分析方法。本研究描述了一种微设备，该设备可处理纳升规模的液体栓塞，用于制备各种培养设置及后续的细胞分析。这种液体操作模式的一个重要特征是，栓塞内部产生的再循环流会促进栓塞合并后不同溶液的快速混合，并使细胞悬液保持均匀。因此，使用纳升溶液就能快速进行试剂的系列稀释以及不同细胞密度和细胞类型的细胞悬液的稀释。通过栓塞处理接种的细胞在微设备中生长良好，随后利用栓塞处理来检测细胞的葡萄糖消耗以及细胞对抗癌药物的反应。基于栓塞的微设备可能为包括基础细胞生物学和药物筛选应用在内的各个领域的基于细胞的分析系统提供一个有用的平台。
