A device for investigation of natural cell mobility and deformability

A microfluidic device made of polydimethylsiloxane was developed for continuous evaluation of natural migration mobility of many eukaryotic cells in relaxed and deformed state. The device was fabricated by standard photolithography and soft lithography techniques using the SU-8 3010 negative photoresist on a glass wafer as the master mold. The simple flow-free device exploits the chemotactic movement of cells through a set of mechanical barriers in the direction of concentration gradients of attractants. The barriers are formed by arrays of circular cross-section pillars with decreasing spacing 7, 5, and 3 μm. To pass through the obstacles, the cells are deformed and change their cytoskeletal architecture. The instantaneous migration velocities of cells are monitored in a time-lapse setup of the scanning confocal microscope. Thus, the cellular deformability and migratory activity can easily be evaluated. The functionality of the device was tested with model HeLa cells stably transfected with fluorescent Premo FUCCI Cell Cycle Sensor. The designed device has the potential to be implemented for testing the tendency of patients' tumors to metastasis.