Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, CAS, Shanghai, China.
Cell Prolif. 2023 May;56(5):e13473. doi: 10.1111/cpr.13473. Epub 2023 May 17.
Cancer cell spheroids have been shown to mimic in vivo tumour microenvironment and are therefore suitable for in vitro drug screening. Microfluidic technology can provide conveniences for spheroid assays such as high-throughput, simplifying manual operation and saving reagent. Here, we propose a concentration gradient generator based on microfluidic technology for cell spheroid culture and assay. The chip consists of upper microchannels and lower microwells. After partitioning HepG2 suspension into the microwells with concave and non-adhesive bottoms, spheroids can spontaneously form. By controlling the fluid replacement and flow in microchannels, the doxorubicin solution is diluted automatically into a series of concentration gradients, which spanning more than one order of magnitude. And then the effect of doxorubicin on spheroids is measured in situ by fluorescent staining. This chip provides a very promising approach to achieve the high-throughput and standardized anti-cancer drug screening in future.
癌细胞球体已被证明可以模拟体内肿瘤微环境，因此适合用于体外药物筛选。微流控技术可为球体分析提供便利，如高通量、简化手动操作和节省试剂。在这里，我们提出了一种基于微流控技术的浓度梯度发生器，用于细胞球体的培养和分析。该芯片由上微通道和下微井组成。将 HepG2 悬浮液分配到具有凹形和非粘性底部的微井中后，球体可以自发形成。通过控制微通道中的流体替换和流动，可以自动将阿霉素溶液稀释成一系列浓度梯度，跨越一个以上数量级。然后通过荧光染色原位测量阿霉素对球体的作用。该芯片为未来实现高通量和标准化抗癌药物筛选提供了一种很有前途的方法。
