Abstract

Microfluidic Cell Patterning Technique for Multicellular Dynamics Studies

Chwee Teck Lim, Provost’s Chair Professor, National University of Singapore

Cell-substrate and cell-cell adhesion can influence cell growth, proliferation and migration and any deviation may result in cancer metastasis, inflammatory diseases and host reaction to biomaterials just to name a few. Cell adhesive micro-patterns of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins produced from lithographic techniques and micro-stamping provide ideal tools for such studies as they allow continual monitoring of cells as well as control over cellular physical characteristics such as size, shape and cell-cell contact formation conditions. Typically, each of these micro-patterns is designed to monitor a single cell. However, in practice, a random seeding of cells would only give low yields in terms of micro-patterns deposited with exactly one cell each, hence making it difficult to construct large arrays of single cells consistently. Here, we developed a PDMS-based microfluidic device consisting of an array of cell traps that has been designed to allow precise positioning of one cell on one adhesive pattern in a controlled manner. The traps were aligned to the micropatterns to allow for effectively trapping of singles cells on top of fibronectin coated patterns. Cells were allowed to partially attach to the patterns before the microfluidic traps were removed, leaving behind a large array of single cells positioned on the adhesive patterns. With such an experimental platform, highly reproducible single cell deposition on protein patterns can be achieved in a high throughput and precise manner. This will allow for systematic cell-adhesion and cell-cell studies with great ease and speed.