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Orabi M, Lo JF. Emerging Advances in Microfluidic Hydrogel Droplets for Tissue Engineering and STEM Cell Mechanobiology. Gels 2023; 9:790. [PMID: 37888363 PMCID: PMC10606214 DOI: 10.3390/gels9100790] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2023] [Revised: 09/26/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Hydrogel droplets are biodegradable and biocompatible materials with promising applications in tissue engineering, cell encapsulation, and clinical treatments. They represent a well-controlled microstructure to bridge the spatial divide between two-dimensional cell cultures and three-dimensional tissues, toward the recreation of entire organs. The applications of hydrogel droplets in regenerative medicine require a thorough understanding of microfluidic techniques, the biocompatibility of hydrogel materials, and droplet production and manipulation mechanisms. Although hydrogel droplets were well studied, several emerging advances promise to extend current applications to tissue engineering and beyond. Hydrogel droplets can be designed with high surface-to-volume ratios and a variety of matrix microstructures. Microfluidics provides precise control of the flow patterns required for droplet generation, leading to tight distributions of particle size, shape, matrix, and mechanical properties in the resultant microparticles. This review focuses on recent advances in microfluidic hydrogel droplet generation. First, the theoretical principles of microfluidics, materials used in fabrication, and new 3D fabrication techniques were discussed. Then, the hydrogels used in droplet generation and their cell and tissue engineering applications were reviewed. Finally, droplet generation mechanisms were addressed, such as droplet production, droplet manipulation, and surfactants used to prevent coalescence. Lastly, we propose that microfluidic hydrogel droplets can enable novel shear-related tissue engineering and regeneration studies.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Joe F. Lo
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 4901 Evergreen Road, Dearborn, MI 48128, USA;
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Duan K, Zhou M, Wang Y, Oberholzer J, Lo JF. Visualizing hypoxic modulation of beta cell secretions via a sensor augmented oxygen gradient. MICROSYSTEMS & NANOENGINEERING 2023; 9:14. [PMID: 36760229 PMCID: PMC9902275 DOI: 10.1038/s41378-022-00482-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2022] [Revised: 11/04/2022] [Accepted: 11/27/2022] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
One distinct advantage of microfluidic-based cell assays is their scalability for multiple concentrations or gradients. Microfluidic scaling can be extremely powerful when combining multiple parameters and modalities. Moreover, in situ stimulation and detection eliminates variability between individual bioassays. However, conventional microfluidics must combat diffusion, which limits the spatial distance and time for molecules traveling through microchannels. Here, we leveraged a multilayered microfluidic approach to integrate a novel oxygen gradient (0-20%) with an enhanced hydrogel sensor to study pancreatic beta cells. This enabled our microfluidics to achieve spatiotemporal detection that is difficult to achieve with traditional microfluidics. Using this device, we demonstrated the in situ detection of calcium, insulin, and ATP (adenosine triphosphate) in response to glucose and oxygen stimulation. Specifically, insulin was quantified at levels as low as 25 pg/mL using our imaging technique. Furthermore, by analyzing the spatial detection data dynamically over time, we uncovered a new relationship between oxygen and beta cell oscillations. We observed an optimum oxygen level between 10 and 12%, which is neither hypoxic nor normoxic in the conventional cell culture sense. These results provide evidence to support the current islet oscillator model. In future applications, this spatial microfluidic technique can be adapted for discrete protein detection in a robust platform to study numerous oxygen-dependent tissue dysfunctions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Duan
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineering Program, University of Michigan at Dearborn, Dearborn, MI 48128 USA
| | - Mengyang Zhou
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineering Program, University of Michigan at Dearborn, Dearborn, MI 48128 USA
| | - Yong Wang
- Department of Surgery/Transplant, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908 USA
| | - Jose Oberholzer
- Department of Surgery/Transplant, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908 USA
| | - Joe F. Lo
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineering Program, University of Michigan at Dearborn, Dearborn, MI 48128 USA
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Shahriari S, Selvaganapathy PR. Integration of hydrogels into microfluidic devices with porous membranes as scaffolds enables their drying and reconstitution. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2022; 16:054108. [PMID: 36313189 PMCID: PMC9616609 DOI: 10.1063/5.0100589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Hydrogels are a critical component of many microfluidic devices. They have been used in cell culture applications, biosensors, gradient generators, separation microdevices, micro-actuators, and microvalves. Various techniques have been utilized to integrate hydrogels into microfluidic devices such as flow confinement and gel photopolymerization. However, in these methods, hydrogels are typically introduced in post processing steps which add complexity, cost, and extensive fabrication steps to the integration process and can be prone to user induced variations. Here, we introduce an inexpensive method to locally integrate hydrogels into microfluidic devices during the fabrication process without the need for post-processing. In this method, porous and fibrous membranes such as electrospun membranes are used as scaffolds to hold gels and they are patterned using xurography. Hydrogels in various shapes as small as 200 μm can be patterned using this method in a scalable manner. The electrospun scaffold facilitates drying and reconstitution of these gels without loss of shape or leakage that is beneficial in a number of applications. Such reconstitution is not feasible using other hydrogel integration techniques. Therefore, this method is suitable for long time storage of hydrogels in devices which is useful in point-of-care (POC) devices. This hydrogel integration method was used to demonstrate gel electrophoretic concentration and quantification of short DNA (150 bp) with different concentrations in rehydrated agarose embedded in electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) membrane. This can be developed further to create a POC device to quantify cell-free DNA, which is a prognostic biomarker for severe sepsis patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shadi Shahriari
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L7, Canada
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Hartanto H, Wu M, Lam ML, Chen TH. Microfluidic immunoassay for detection of serological antibodies: A potential tool for rapid evaluation of immunity against SARS-CoV-2. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2020; 14:061507. [PMID: 33343783 PMCID: PMC7738199 DOI: 10.1063/5.0031521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2020] [Accepted: 11/23/2020] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
In December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 became a pandemic affecting more than 200 countries and territories. Millions of lives are still affected because of mandatory quarantines, which hamstring economies and induce panic. Immunology plays a major role in the modern field of medicine, especially against virulent infectious diseases. In this field, neutralizing antibodies are heavily studied because they reflect the level of infection and individuals' immune status, which are essential when considering resumption of work, flight travel, and border entry control. More importantly, it also allows evaluating the antiviral vaccine efficacy as vaccines are still known for being the ultimate intervention method to inhibit the rapid spread of virulent infectious diseases. In this Review, we first introduce the host immune response after the infection of SARS-CoV-2 and discuss the latest results using conventional immunoassays. Next, as an enabling platform for detection with sufficient sensitivity while saving analysis time and sample size, the progress of microfluidic-based immunoassays is discussed and compared based on surface modification, microfluidic kinetics, signal output, signal amplification, sample matrix, and the detection of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Based on the overall comparison, this Review concludes by proposing the future integration of visual quantitative signals on microfluidic devices as a more suitable approach for general use and large-scale surveillance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hogi Hartanto
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 999077, China
| | - Minghui Wu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 999077, China
| | - Miu Ling Lam
- School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 999077, China
| | - Ting-Hsuan Chen
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 999077, China
- Author to whom correspondence should be addressed:
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Li G, Tang W, Yang F. Cancer Liquid Biopsy Using Integrated Microfluidic Exosome Analysis Platforms. Biotechnol J 2020; 15:e1900225. [PMID: 32032977 DOI: 10.1002/biot.201900225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2019] [Revised: 01/31/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Liquid biopsies serve as both powerful noninvasive diagnostic tools for early cancer screening and prognostic tools for monitoring cancer progression and treatment efficacy. Exosomes are promising biomarkers for liquid biopsies, since these nano-sized extracellular vesicles (EVs) enrich proteins, lipids, mRNAs, and miRNAs from cells of origin, including cancer cells. Although exosomes are abundantly present in various bodily fluids, conventional exosome isolation and detection methods that rely on benchtop equipment are time-consuming, expensive, and involve complicated non-portable procedures. As an alternative, recently developed microfluidic platforms can perform effective exosome separation and detection for liquid biopsies using a single device. Such methods offer advantages of integrity, speed, cost-efficiency, and portability over conventional benchtop and early microfluidic-based single-functional methods which can only separate or detect exosomes separately. These advances have made exosome-based point-of-care (POC) applications possible. This review outlines recent integrated microfluidic-based exosomal detection strategies to guide future development of such devices for use in liquid biopsies for early cancer screening, prognostic monitoring, and other potential POC applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guiying Li
- Key Laboratory for Molecular Enzymology and Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China.,National Engineering Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China
| | - Weiwei Tang
- Key Laboratory for Molecular Enzymology and Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China
| | - Fang Yang
- Key Laboratory for Molecular Enzymology and Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China
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Ye WQ, Wei YX, Zhang YZ, Yang CG, Xu ZR. Multiplexed detection of micro-RNAs based on microfluidic multi-color fluorescence droplets. Anal Bioanal Chem 2019; 412:647-655. [PMID: 31836924 DOI: 10.1007/s00216-019-02266-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2019] [Revised: 10/12/2019] [Accepted: 11/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
In this work, simple, rapid, and low-cost multiplexed detection of tumor-related micro-RNAs (miRNAs) was achieved based on multi-color fluorescence on a microfluidic droplet chip, which simplified the complexity of light path to a half. A four-T-junction structure was fabricated to form uniform nano-volume droplet arrays with customized contents. Multi-color quantum dots (QDs) used as the fluorescence labels were encapsulated into droplets to develop the multi-path fluorescence detection module. We designed an integrated multiplex fluorescence resonance energy transfer system assisted by multiple QDs (four colors) and one quencher to detect four tumor-related miRNAs (miRNA-20a, miRNA-21, miRNA-155, and miRNA-221). The qualitative analysis of miRNAs was realized by the color identification of QDs, while the quantitative detection of miRNAs was achieved based on the linear relationship between the quenching efficiency of QDs and the concentration of miRNAs. The practicability of the multiplex detection device was further confirmed by detecting four tumor-related miRNAs in real human serum samples. The detection limits of four miRNAs ranged from 35 to 39 pmol/L was achieved without any target amplification. And the linear range was from 0.1 nmol/L to 1 μmol/L using 10 nL detection volume (one droplet) under the detection speed of 320 droplets per minute. The multiple detection system for miRNAs is simple, fast, and low-cost and will be a powerful platform for clinical diagnostic analysis. Graphical abstract.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen-Qi Ye
- Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Northeastern University, 3-11 Wenhua Road, Shenyang, 110819, Liaoning, China
| | - Yi-Xuan Wei
- Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Northeastern University, 3-11 Wenhua Road, Shenyang, 110819, Liaoning, China
| | - Ying-Zhi Zhang
- Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Northeastern University, 3-11 Wenhua Road, Shenyang, 110819, Liaoning, China
| | - Chun-Guang Yang
- Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Northeastern University, 3-11 Wenhua Road, Shenyang, 110819, Liaoning, China.
| | - Zhang-Run Xu
- Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Northeastern University, 3-11 Wenhua Road, Shenyang, 110819, Liaoning, China
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Zheng K, Chen C, Chen X, Xu M, Chen L, Hu Y, Bai Y, Liu B, Yan C, Wang H, Li J. Graphically encoded suspension array for multiplex immunoassay and quantification of autoimmune biomarkers in patient sera. Biosens Bioelectron 2019; 132:47-54. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2019.02.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2018] [Revised: 01/25/2019] [Accepted: 02/04/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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Randriantsilefisoa R, Cuellar-Camacho JL, Chowdhury MS, Dey P, Schedler U, Haag R. Highly sensitive detection of antibodies in a soft bioactive three-dimensional bioorthogonal hydrogel. J Mater Chem B 2019. [DOI: 10.1039/c9tb00234k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
This three-dimensional detection method of antibodies offers a high sensitivity and good biomolecule stability for new biosensing devices.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Pradip Dey
- Institut für Chemie und Biochemie
- Freie Universität Berlin
- Takustr. 3
- Berlin
- Germany
| | - Uwe Schedler
- PolyAn GmbH
- Rudolf-Baschant-Strasse 2
- 13086 Berlin
- Germany
| | - Rainer Haag
- Institut für Chemie und Biochemie
- Freie Universität Berlin
- Takustr. 3
- Berlin
- Germany
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Liu HT, Wang H, Wei WB, Liu H, Jiang L, Qin JH. A Microfluidic Strategy for Controllable Generation of Water-in-Water Droplets as Biocompatible Microcarriers. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2018; 14:e1801095. [PMID: 30091845 DOI: 10.1002/smll.201801095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2018] [Revised: 07/16/2018] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
Droplet microfluidics has been widely applied in functional microparticles fabricating, tissue engineering, and drug screening due to its high throughput and great controllability. However, most of the current droplet microfluidics are dependent on water-in-oil (W/O) systems, which involve organic reagents, thus limiting their broader biological applications. In this work, a new microfluidic strategy is described for controllable and high-throughput generation of monodispersed water-in-water (W/W) droplets. Solutions of polyethylene glycol and dextran are used as continuous and dispersed phases, respectively, without any organic reagents or surfactants. The size of W/W droplets can be precisely adjusted by changing the flow rate of dispersed and continuous phases and the valve switch cycle. In addition, uniform cell-laden microgels are fabricated by introducing the alginate component and rat pancreatic islet (β-TC6) cell suspension to the dispersed phase. The encapsulated islet cells retain high viability and the function of insulin secretion after cultivation for 7 days. The high-throughput droplet microfluidic system with high biocompatibility is stable, controllable, and flexible, which can boost various chemical and biological applications, such as bio-oriented microparticles synthesizing, microcarriers fabricating, tissue engineering, etc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hai-Tao Liu
- Division of Biotechnology, CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China
- School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Hui Wang
- Division of Biotechnology, CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China
- School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Wen-Bo Wei
- Division of Biotechnology, CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China
| | - Hui Liu
- Division of Biotechnology, CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China
| | - Lei Jiang
- Division of Biotechnology, CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China
| | - Jian-Hua Qin
- Division of Biotechnology, CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China
- School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
- Institute for Stem Cell and Regeneration, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China
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