A Low-cost Easy-to-Fabricate Sandwich-Structured Microdevice for Controllable Removal of Extracellular Cryoprotective Agents with High Efficiency.

UNLABELLED

BACKGROUND: Osmotic shock upon the addition and removal of cryoprotectant agent (CPA) is a major source of cell damage during cryopreservation.

OBJECTIVE

Microfluidic device offers a new platform for CPA loading and unloading. The micro scale dimension makes possible to perform a detailed analysis and controllable removal of CPA with many advantages.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A microfluidic device was developed for extracting dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) from the sample streamline. The device has two parallel channels separated by a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane and serves as the stable environment for CPA removal. A diffusion-based simulation model was used to characterize the CPA extraction. To support the experimental design and device optimization we developed analogous scheme to simulate by COMSOL Multiphysics.

RESULTS AND CONCUSION

The device can extract cryoprotectant in a mesoscale volume from cells and simplify the post-thaw sample handling. It has sufficient control on loading/unloading of CPAs by controlling the flow rate of cell stream/wash stream solutions via syringe pumps. Compared to other customary devices, this device is easy to fabricate and assemble, with features of high precision, reusability and low cost.