Pollution-Free and Highly Sensitive Lactate Detection in Cell Culture Based on a Microfluidic Chip

Abstract

Cell metabolite detection is important for cell analysis. As a cellular metabolite, lactate and its detection play an important role in disease diagnosis, drug screening and clinical therapeutics. This paper reports a microfluidic chip integrated with a backflow prevention channel for cell culture and lactate detection. It can effectively realize the upstream and downstream separation of the culture chamber and the detection zone, and prevent the pollution of cells caused by the potential backflow of reagent and buffer solutions. Due to such a separation, it is possible to analyze the lactate concentration in the flow process without contamination of cells. With the information of residence time distribution of the microchannel networks and the detected time signal in the detection chamber, it is possible to calculate the lactate concentration as a function of time using the de-convolution method. We have further demonstrated the suitability of this detection method by measuring lactate production in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). The microfluidic chip presented here shows good stability in metabolite quick detection and can work continuously for more than a few days. It sheds new insights into pollution-free and high-sensitivity cell metabolism detection, showing broad application prospects in cell analysis, drug screening and disease diagnosis.

High sensitivity and automatic chemiluminescence detection of glucose and lactate using a spin-disc paper-based device

“…The detection of human metabolites, including glucose, 1 lactate, 2 pyruvate, 3 and reactive oxygen species (ROS), 4 is crucial for the diagnosis and treatment of various human diseases. 5 Therefore, the necessity of monitoring the variation of metabolites at the cellular level or in body fluids (such as blood, saliva, and sweat) has induced the development of a variety of detection techniques, 6 such as colorimetry, 7 fluorescence, 8 electrochemistry, 9 chemiluminescence (CL), 10 and electrochemiluminescence (ECL). 11 CL therein has been explored extensively for its unique advantages involving high sensitivity, simplicity, and independence of light sources.…”

A tempo-spatial controllable microfluidic shear-stress generator for in-vitro mimicking of the thrombus

“…Microfluidics has become the most promising technique for generating both physiological and pathological shear stress owning to its advantages in accurate fluid control [ 18 – 20 ], biocompatibility and microenvironment mimicking [ 21 – 23 ]. Microfluidic devices have unveiled the influence of physiological shear stress on various cell morphological parameters, including cell alignment [ 24 ], cytoskeleton [ 25 ] and intracellular actin arrangement [ 26 ].…”