A study of in vitro 3D microfluidic cell migration platform

Abstract

Microfluidics systems have been rapidly progressing as it deeply penetrates through the laboratory phase into the biomedical sector, providing state-of-the-art technologies for application such as biosensing, fabrication of point of care diagnostic platforms and even understanding the complexity of wound care through cell migration. This concept of miniaturization is highly emphasized in the study of cell migration on wound healing as small gradients of chemoattractants are sufficient to deploy necessary stem cells to sites of injury. Over dosage of these growth factors may be detrimental and causing cells interactions to divert away from the intended purpose. Therefore, the creation of a microfluidic device will serve as a platform to mitigate the hassle in controlling release of biochemical factors, nonetheless, mimic cellular physiological environment in vitro. In the course of the study, it was found that surface tension was a crucial property in directing the flow in microchannels which gradually affected the cellular behavior towards its environment.