Lab of Biosystem and Microanalysis, State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China.
Biotechnol J. 2021 Feb;16(2):e2000126. doi: 10.1002/biot.202000126. Epub 2020 Oct 19.
Paper is increasingly recognized as a portable substrate for cell culture, due to its low-cost, flexible, and special porous property, which provides a native cellular 3D microenvironment. Therefore, paper-based microfluidics has been developed for cell culture and biomedical analysis. However, the inability of continuous medium supply limits the wide application of paper devices for cell culture. Herein, a paper-based microfluidic device is developed with novel folded paper strips as wick-like structure, which is used for medium self-driven perfusion. The paper with patterns of hydrophilic channel, culture areas, and hydrophobic barrier could be easily fabricated through wax-printing. After printing, the hydrophilic paper strip at the periphery of the lower layer is then folded at 90° and extended into the medium container for continuous automatic supply of medium to the cell culture area. Tumor cells cultured in the paper device are tested for anti-cancer drug screening. Visualized cell viability and chemical sensitivity testing can be achieved by colorimetry combined with simple smartphone imaging, effectively reducing precision instrument dependence. The wick paper-based microfluidic device for cell culture endows the method the advantages of lower cost, ease-of-operation, miniaturization, and shows a great potential for large-scale cell culture, antibody drug production, and efficient screening.
纸由于其低成本、灵活性和特殊的多孔特性，越来越被认为是细胞培养的一种可携带的基质，为细胞提供了天然的 3D 微环境。因此，基于纸张的微流控技术已经被开发出来用于细胞培养和生物医学分析。然而，由于无法持续供应培养基，限制了纸基器件在细胞培养中的广泛应用。本文开发了一种新型折叠纸条作为类似芯吸的结构的纸基微流控装置，用于介质自驱动灌注。通过蜡印，可以很容易地制造出具有亲水通道图案、培养区和疏水屏障的纸张。打印后，下层边缘的亲水纸条以 90°折叠并延伸到介质容器中，以向细胞培养区持续自动供应培养基。在纸装置中培养的肿瘤细胞用于抗癌药物筛选。通过比色法结合简单的智能手机成像可以实现可视化的细胞活力和化学敏感性测试，有效地减少了对精密仪器的依赖。用于细胞培养的芯吸纸基微流控装置使该方法具有成本更低、操作更简单、更小型化的优点，显示出在大规模细胞培养、抗体药物生产和高效筛选方面的巨大潜力。
