Abstract

Biomimic cellular microenvironment by using artificial extracellular matrix and microfluidics

Liu Li, , Kyoto University

In our body, cellular microenvironment is compact and 3-dimentional. However, in cell biology, plastic dishes, flasks and multi-wells are extensively used for in vitro assays. This fact leads to cells have to undergo substantially changes because of the change of the cellular microenviroments, including the extracellular matrix and the providing of soluble factors. “Lessen from Nature”. But it is still a challenge to reproduce natural microenvironment for cells in vitro level. Recently, growing research suggests that micro-engineering technology can be used to fabricate artificial environment. Here, our idea is biomimic cellular microvironment by using microfludics and artificial extracellular matrix for cell culture and analysis, specifically, pluripotent stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. In the past several years, we have successfully developed some types of engineered substrates to biomimic extracellular matrices for pluripotent stem cells culture, such as polymer- or gelatin-based nanofibers technology, and 3D lattices. On the other hand, we also proposed a diffusion-based cell culture platform, showing thefeasibility of open-access and high precision flow control by using microfludics technology. In the future, we will focus on developing a complex platform, which are integrated artificial 3 dimensional scaffolds with microfluidics, for understanding and controlling the complex behaviors of the stem cells.