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Updated: Sep 19, 2025
Cell Squeezing as a Robust, Microfluidic Intracellular Delivery Platform
Published on: November 7, 2013
Physical Intracellular Delivery Based on Microfluidic Technology
Chong Ji1, Yuanyuan Song1, Zhiwei Fan1
1Joint Laboratory of Advanced Biomedical Materials (NFU-UGent), Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center of Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forest Resources, College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University (NFU), Nanjing, 210037, P. R. China.
Microfluidic chips offer a promising physical method for intracellular delivery of biomolecules, overcoming limitations of traditional techniques. This approach enhances precision medicine and cellular therapies by improving delivery efficiency while minimizing cell damage.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Cell Biology
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Intracellular delivery of biomolecules is crucial for biomarker detection and cellular immunotherapies.
- Current methods like carrier-based and chemical membrane disruption have limitations in cell-type specificity and cell damage.
- Physical membrane disruption methods offer an alternative but face challenges in balancing efficiency and cell viability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review microfluidic chip-based physical intracellular delivery methods.
- To highlight the mechanisms, approaches, applications, advantages, and limitations of these techniques.
- To discuss future prospects for advanced intracellular delivery strategies.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on microfluidic chip-based physical intracellular delivery.
- Analysis of mechanisms including precise control and high throughput.
- Examination of traditional physical methods (microneedles, electroporation) for comparison.
Main Results:
- Microfluidic chips provide precise control and high throughput for physical intracellular delivery.
- These systems show potential to overcome the cell damage-delivery efficiency trade-off.
- Emerging microfluidic technologies offer a promising alternative to conventional delivery systems.
Conclusions:
- Microfluidic chip-based physical intracellular delivery is a rapidly advancing field with significant potential.
- This technology can enhance precision medicine, cell-based therapies, and biological research.
- Further development of next-generation strategies is expected to broaden applications and improve outcomes.
