A microfluidic chip carrier including temperature control and perfusion system for long-term cell imaging

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cell Biology
• Microfluidics

Background:

• Microfluidic devices are crucial for biomedical applications, but transferring them for microscopy while maintaining physiological conditions remains challenging.
• Existing systems often lack affordability, reliability, and user-friendliness for seamless microscopy integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a cost-effective, user-friendly carrier for microfluidic chips that sustains physiological conditions outside an incubator.
• To enable reliable, long-term cell culture monitoring and imaging using microfluidic systems.

Main Methods:

• Designed a well-plate-sized carrier with an integrated perfusion system using piezo pumps (50-1000 µl/min).
• Incorporated a film resistive heater with temperature feedback control to maintain 37°C.
• Characterized heater uniformity and tested the system with mouse brain endothelial cells (bEnd.3) for 10 days.

Main Results:

• The carrier successfully maintained microfluidic chip environmental conditions outside the incubator.
• Heater characterization showed uniform temperature distribution up to 10 µl/min perfusion flow rates.
• Demonstrated feasibility for 10-day long-term cell culture monitoring and imaging.

Conclusions:

• The developed carrier offers a versatile and cost-effective solution for microfluidic chip microscopy.
• This system minimizes device manipulation, facilitating reagent exchange and sample collection.
• The platform shows significant potential for extended imaging in microphysiological system cell cultures.