Assaying Macrophage Chemotaxis Using Fluid‐Walled Microfluidics

Deroy, Cyril; Rumianek, Agata N.; Wheeler, James H. R.; Nebuloni, Federico; Cook, Peter; Greaves, David R.; Walsh, Edmond J.

doi:10.1002/admt.202200279

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Circuits can be built in minutes in standard Petri dishes, andunlike solid walls that cannot be pierced by pipetsfluid walls allow direct access to cells everywhere in circuits. These walls re-heal automatically when pipets are withdrawn, they can be destroyed and/or reshaped without damaging cells within them, 11,12 and are so transparent that cell morphology can be monitored using standard microscopes. 13 These features motivate the use of this technology here.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A fluid-walled microfluidic platform for human neuron microcircuits and directed axotomy

Nebuloni,

Do,

Cook

et al. 2024

Lab Chip

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A fluid-walled microfluidic platform for human neuron microcircuits and directed axotomy

Nebuloni,

Do,

Cook

et al. 2024

Lab Chip

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“…The relevance of fluid-walled microfluidics to biology has recently been demonstrated by several biology groups 11 – 13 , 19 – 21 , with fluid-walled microfluidics successfully employed in chemotactic studies of bacteria 15 and mouse macrophages 17 . In both cases, cells were exposed to stable diffusion gradients containing known chemo-attractants generated by flowing two parallel laminar streams.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable diffusion gradients in microfluidic conduits bounded by fluid walls

Nebuloni,

Deroy,

Cook

et al. 2024

Microsyst Nanoeng

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Assays mimicking in vitro the concentration gradients triggering biological responses like those involved in fighting infections and blood clotting are essential for biomedical research. Microfluidic assays prove especially attractive as they allow precise control of gradient shape allied to a reduction in scale. Conventional microfluidic devices are fabricated using solid plastics that prevent direct access to responding cells. Fluid-walled microfluidics allows the manufacture of circuits on standard Petri dishes in seconds, coupled to simple operating methods; cell-culture medium sitting in a standard dish is confined to circuits by fluid walls made of an immiscible fluorocarbon. We develop and experimentally validate an analytical model of diffusion between two or more aqueous streams flowing at different rates into a fluid-walled conduit with the cross-section of a circular segment. Unlike solid walls, fluid walls morph during flows as pressures fall, with wall shape changing down the conduit. The model is validated experimentally for Fourier numbers < 0.1 using fluorescein diffusing between laminar streams. It enables a priori prediction of concentration gradients throughout a conduit, so allowing rapid circuit design as well as providing bio-scientists with an accurate way of predicting local concentrations of bioactive molecules around responsive and non-responsive cells.

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“…These pinned walls confine the resulting aqueous circuit, isolating it from its surroundings (figure 1b). Such circuits have been used to perfuse cultured cells (Soitu et al 2020) and to perform chemotactic assays (Deroy et al 2022); however, flows were maintained using complex experimental set-ups and external pumps. Therefore, there is the need to develop automatic ('passive') pumping systems that do not rely on external active pumps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2020) and to perform chemotactic assays (Deroy et al. 2022); however, flows were maintained using complex experimental set-ups and external pumps. Therefore, there is the need to develop automatic (‘passive’) pumping systems that do not rely on external active pumps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flows in fluid-walled conduits driven by Laplace pressure

Nebuloni,

Cook,

Walsh

2023

J. Fluid Mech.

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In conventional microfluidic devices, fluids are often confined behind solid plastic walls that restrict access and trap gas bubbles; in open microfluidics some solid walls are replaced by fluid ones (i.e. interfaces with immiscible fluids). In both cases, flows are usually driven by external pumps or gravity. An innovative open technology has been developed in which two-dimensional patterns of cell-culture medium in standard Petri dishes are confined by fluid walls made of an immiscible and bio-inert fluorocarbon (FC40). To provide refreshing media flows to cells in such circuits, an established pumping system that exploits differences in Laplace pressure across open interfaces has been applied to drive flow without using external pumps: a source drop autonomously empties through a straight conduit into the rest of the dish (the sink). Whereas conduits with solid walls have unchanging boundaries and flows within them are well understood, the challenge is to predict flows in circuits where fluid walls morph as pressures change. Numerical and semi-analytical equations enabling the prediction of changing flows are developed, and predictions validated experimentally.

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Assaying Macrophage Chemotaxis Using Fluid‐Walled Microfluidics

Abstract: This is a repository copy of Assaying macrophage chemotaxis using fluid-walled microfluidics.

Cited by 6 publications

References 51 publications

A fluid-walled microfluidic platform for human neuron microcircuits and directed axotomy

A fluid-walled microfluidic platform for human neuron microcircuits and directed axotomy

Stable diffusion gradients in microfluidic conduits bounded by fluid walls

Flows in fluid-walled conduits driven by Laplace pressure

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