Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Microsystems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2373:21-38. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1693-2_2.
A relevant number of organ-on-chips is aimed at modeling epithelial/endothelial interfaces between tissue compartments. These barriers help tissue function either by protecting (e.g., endothelial blood-brain barrier) or by orchestrating relevant molecular exchanges (e.g., lung alveolar interface) in human organs. Models of these biological systems are aimed at characterizing the transport of molecules, drugs or drug carriers through these specific barriers. Multilayer microdevices are particularly appealing to this goal and techniques for embedding porous membranes within organ-on-chips are therefore at the basis of the development and use of such systems. Here, we discuss and provide procedures for embedding porous membranes within multilayer organ-on-chips. We present standard techniques involving both custom-made polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes and commercially available plastic membranes. In addition, we present a novel method for fabricating and bonding PDMS porous membranes by using a cost-effective epoxy resin in place of microfabricated silicon wafers as master molds.
大量的器官芯片旨在模拟组织隔室之间的上皮/内皮界面。这些屏障通过保护(例如,内皮血脑屏障)或协调人体器官中相关的分子交换(例如,肺泡界面)来帮助组织发挥功能。这些生物系统模型旨在描述分子、药物或药物载体通过这些特定屏障的转运。多层微器件特别适用于实现这一目标,因此,在器官芯片中嵌入多孔膜的技术是开发和使用此类系统的基础。在这里,我们讨论并提供了在多层器官芯片中嵌入多孔膜的方法。我们介绍了涉及定制聚二甲基硅氧烷(PDMS)膜和市售塑料膜的标准技术。此外,我们还提出了一种新的方法,即用经济高效的环氧树脂代替微加工硅片作为主模具,来制造和键合 PDMS 多孔膜。