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Biomicrofluidics / Volume 3 / Issue 1 / SPECIAL TOPIC: INVITED PAPERS FROM THE 2009 CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN MICROFLUIDICS AND NANOFLUIDICS, THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, HONG KONG, 2009 (GUEST EDITOR: WEIJIA WEN)

Biomicrofluidics 3, 012006 (2009); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3067820 (15 pages)

Microfluidics as a functional tool for cell mechanics

Siva A. Vanapalli1, Michel H. G. Duits2, and Frieder Mugele2

1Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409, USA
2Physics of Complex Fluids, Department of Science & Technology and MESA+ Institute of Nanotechnology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

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(Received 9 December 2008; accepted 15 December 2008; published online 5 January 2009)

Living cells are a fascinating demonstration of nature’s most intricate and well-coordinated micromechanical objects. They crawl, spread, contract, and relax—thus performing a multitude of complex mechanical functions. Alternatively, they also respond to physical and chemical cues that lead to remodeling of the cytoskeleton. To understand this intricate coupling between mechanical properties, mechanical function and force-induced biochemical signaling requires tools that are capable of both controlling and manipulating the cell microenvironment and measuring the resulting mechanical response. In this review, the power of microfluidics as a functional tool for research in cell mechanics is highlighted. In particular, current literature is discussed to show that microfluidics powered by soft lithographic techniques offers the following capabilities that are of significance for understanding the mechanical behavior of cells: (i) Microfluidics enables the creation of in vitro models of physiological environments in which cell mechanics can be probed. (ii) Microfluidics is an excellent means to deliver physical cues that affect cell mechanics, such as cell shape, fluid flow, substrate topography, and stiffness. (iii) Microfluidics can also expose cells to chemical cues, such as growth factors and drugs, which alter their mechanical behavior. Moreover, these chemical cues can be delivered either at the whole cell or subcellular level. (iv) Microfluidic devices offer the possibility of measuring the intrinsic mechanical properties of cells in a high throughput fashion. (v) Finally, microfluidic methods provide exquisite control over drop size, generation, and manipulation. As a result, droplets are being increasingly used to control the physicochemical environment of cells and as biomimetic analogs of living cells. These powerful attributes of microfluidics should further stimulate novel means of investigating the link between physicochemical cues and the biomechanical response of cells. Insights from such studies will have implications in areas such as drug delivery, medicine, tissue engineering, and biomedical diagnostics.

© 2009 American Institute of Physics

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. MICROFLUIDIC DEVICES MIMIC IN VIVO CELLULAR MICROENVIRONMENT
  3. MICROFLUIDICS AS A MEANS TO DELIVER PHYSICAL CUES TO CELLS
  4. MICROFLUIDICS AS A MEANS TO EXPOSE CELLS TO CHEMICAL CUES
  5. MICROFLUIDIC TOOLS TO CHARACTERIZE THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF CELLS
  6. DROPLET BASED MICROFLUIDICS
  7. CONCLUSIONS

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

biochemistry, biomechanics, bioMEMS, cellular biophysics, microfluidics

PACS

  • 87.85.Ox

    Biomedical instrumentation and transducers, including micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)

  • 85.85.+j

    Micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) and devices

  • 87.18.-h

    Biological complexity

  • 87.17.Rt

    Cell adhesion and cell mechanics

  • 87.15.R-

    Reactions and kinetics

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3067820

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

1932-1058 (print)  
1932-1058 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

For access to fully linked references, you need to log in.
    S. A. Vanapalli, D. van den Ende, M. H. G. Duits, and F. Mugele, Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 114109 (2007)APPLAB000090000011114109000001.

    H. Gu, F. Malloggi, S. A. Vanapalli, and F. Mugele, Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 183507 (2008)APPLAB000093000018183507000001.


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