Cell migration assay using multiple laminar flows in PDMS microchannel

Abstract

Cell migration is a cellular process that plays a critical role in health and disease, including embryogenesis, wound healing, immune response, and tissue development. In order to overcome some shortcomings derived from traditional physical scrape-based cell migration assay, multiple laminar flows have been used to partially treat a confluent cell sheet formed in microchannels, which can simply pattern physiological wound edge. In the present study, rapid prototyping of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microchannels for assays was preformed utilizing instead a simple photopolymerization procedure adapted for a conventional liquid crystal display projector (LCDP) without any need for expensive photomasks. PDMS microchannels having three inlets (300 mum in width) that converged into a single main channel (900 mum in width) were fabricated with the LCDP-modified device. In conclusion, wound edges of confluent cell monolayers for cell migration assay were prepared utilizing trypsin laminar flow to contact only a portion of cell monolayers, within microfluidic channels. These results demonstrate that cell migration assays could be performed even in a miniaturized platform. The utilization of miniaturized microchannels can minimize the amount of expensive reagents required for cell migration assay and allows for possible scaling-up in future applications.