A microphysiological system for handling graphene related materials under flow conditions

Area of Science:

• Nanotechnology and Materials Science
• Biomedical Engineering
• Toxicology

Background:

• Nanotechnology, particularly 2D materials like graphene-related materials (GRMs), has vast industrial and biomedical applications.
• Assessing the safety of GRMs is crucial but challenging due to their tendency to deposit, adsorb to plastics, and lack stability in aqueous solutions.
• Traditional static assays fail to replicate human physiological conditions, hindering accurate nanomaterial safety evaluations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and optimize a microfluidic system that minimizes graphene oxide (GO) and few-layer graphene (FLG) adsorption and deposition.
• To create a kidney-on-a-chip model for evaluating the effects of GO and FLG exposure under dynamic, physiologically relevant flow conditions.

Main Methods:

• Optimization of a microfluidic system to control nanoparticle behavior under flow.
• Development of a kidney-on-a-chip device.
• Exposure of the kidney-on-a-chip to GO and FLG flakes at a sublethal dose under fluid flow.

Main Results:

• The optimized microfluidic system successfully minimized GO and FLG adsorption and deposition.
• The kidney-on-a-chip model effectively simulated human physiological microenvironments for nanomaterial exposure.
• Sublethal exposure effects of GO and FLG were evaluated under flow conditions.

Conclusions:

• Microphysiological systems (MPSs), such as organ-on-a-chip technology, are innovative and precise tools for evaluating nanomaterial safety.
• Flow-based microfluidic systems overcome limitations of static assays for assessing GRMs and other nanomaterials.
• This approach enables more accurate and relevant safety assessments of nanomaterials in biomedical applications.