Evaluation of Flow-Induced Shear in a Porous Microfluidic Slide: CFD Analysis and Experimental Investigation

Microfluidic devices offer well-defined physical environments that are suitable for effective cell seeding and in vitro three-dimensional (3D) cell culture experiments. These platforms have been employed to model in vivo conditions for studying mechanical forces, cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions, and to elucidate transport mechanisms in 3D tissue-like structures, such as tumor and lymph node organoids. Studies have shown that fluid flow behavior in microfluidic slides (μ-slides) directly influences shear stress, which has emerged as a key factor affecting cell proliferation and differentiation. This study investigates fluid flow in the porous channel of a μ-slide using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques to analyze the impact of perfusion flow rate and porous properties on resulting shear stresses. The model of the μ-slide filled with a permeable biomaterial is considered. Porous media fluid flow in the channel is characterized by adding a momentum loss term to the standard Navier-Stokes equations, with a physiological range of permeability values. Numerical simulations are conducted to obtain data and contour plots of the filtration velocity and flow-induced shear stress distributions within the device channel. The filtration flow is subsequently measured by performing protein perfusions into the slide embedded with native human-derived ECM, while the flow rate is controlled using a syringe pump. The relationships between inlet flow rate and shear stress, as well as filtration flow and ECM permeability, are analyzed. The findings provide insights into the impact of shear stress, informing the optimization of perfusion conditions for studying tissues and cells under fluid flow.