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Updated: Mar 12, 2026

Identifying PD-1/PD-L1 Inhibitors with Surface Plasmon Resonance Technology
Published on: May 2, 2025
Small molecule absorption by PDMS in the context of drug response bioassays
B J van Meer1, H de Vries2, K S A Firth3
1Dept. of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Einthovenweg 20, 2333 ZC, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
The polymer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is widely used to build microfluidic devices compatible with cell culture. Whilst convenient in manufacture, PDMS has the disadvantage that it can absorb small molecules such as drugs. In microfluidic devices like "Organs-on-Chip", designed to examine cell behavior and test the effects of drugs, this might impact drug bioavailability. Here we developed an assay to compare the absorption of a test set of four cardiac drugs by PDMS based on measuring the residual non-absorbed compound by High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). We showed that absorption was variable and time dependent and not determined exclusively by hydrophobicity as claimed previously. We demonstrated that two commercially available lipophilic coatings and the presence of cells affected absorption. The use of lipophilic coatings may be useful in preventing small molecule absorption by PDMS.
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