Abstract

A pump free 3D microfluidic cell culture platform

Yi-Chin Toh, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore

Microfluidic platforms or Lab-on-a-Chips (LoC) have been in the research spot light for the past few decades because of the capability of the platform to perform high throughput analysis while consuming low volumes of samples. One of the potential usage of the LoC platform is to incorporate tissue culture in the system as a platform for drug testing. However, most LoC devices are still dependent on bulky periphery equipment, such as external pumps and tubing, to generate a sustainable flow for long-term perfusion culture, which are limiting for routine high throughout drug testing operations. Here, we developed a pump-free LoC platform, which is highly portable while allowing for controllable perfusion flow rate. Pump-free perfusion culture is achieved by gravity-driven flow. A constant fluid flow rate can be achieved by orientating the inlet and outlet media reservoirs horizontally at a specified height difference. We demonstrate that the device is capable of tuning flow rates to modulate liver-specific functions of primary rat hepatocytes and is compatible with sustaining long-term perfusion culture of human embryonic stem cell derived hepatocytes.