Method that positions cell-laden or cell-free matrices at defined positions from each other inside a single microfluidic channel

Abstract

In recent years, the use of microfluidic has increased in the field of many biological studies. Microfluidic technology has a large area which is a joint product of biology and industry covering all branches of science. The small size of the microfluidic chip offers many advantages in the use of microfluidic. During the analysis, the microfluidic chip offers many advantages such as, use of less material, less waste generation, temporal control, opportunity of analysis under the microscope and high throughput analysis. In addition to these, while microfluidic chip is providing a safe environment for users, via mimicking the physiological environment, it also provides a suitable environment in order to make cell, tissue and organs based assays. Microfluidic devices especially use in cancer studies, chemical analysis, tissue engineering, drug screening, immunology and stem cell differentiation. In this study, we aimed to develop methods depending on the distance to position the MDA-MB 231 breast cancer cells in the microfluidic channels. Firstly, the microfluidic channels were obtained by using the soft lithography and experiments with breast cancer cells were performed using these channels. Breast cancer cells containing matrix was loaded into microfluidic chips and precipitated onto blank matrix by using centrifuge. The aim of repeating this process was to position the breast cancer cells at different distanced locations.