A More Biomimetic Cell Migration Assay with High Reliability and Its Applications

Cell migration refers to the directional movement of cells to the surrounding cell-free zone in response to chemical and mechanical stimuli. A cell migration assay is an essential device for studying pharmaceutical and medical problems. In this paper, we present a novel approach to a cell migration assay on a chip with two merits, namely (i) simultaneous creation of many cell samples on the same condition and (ii) cells migrating while being stressed in a fluidic environment. The first merit has addressed the problem of poor reproducibility in experimental studies for medical problems such as wound healing, and the second merit has made the cell migration device, which is an in vitro environment, more biomimetic. The two merits are attributed to a novel mechanical method to simultaneously create many cell-free zones and to the design of a microfluidic process to create shear stress in cells uniformly. Two applications were studied on our device to explore its effectiveness. The first application is regarding the combination chemotherapy of cisplatin and doxorubicin (Adriamycin) on cervical cancer cells (HeLa). The second application is regarding inhibiting the migration of endothelial cells (HUVEC) in the process of anti-angiogenesis.