Overview of Microsystems for Studying Cell Behavior Under Culture

Understanding how cells behave and interact with surrounding cells, tissues, microorganisms and all types of biological, biochemical and biomechanical cues from their environment, constitutes a relevant research challenge and requires the support, not only of advanced manipulation and imaging technologies, but also of specifically designed biomedical microsystems with micrometric and even nanometric details for enabling interactions at a cellular and molecular level. These types of microsystems, together with the use of advanced design and manufacturing strategies for their efficient development, constitute the core topic of present Handbook. Biomedical microsystems aimed at interacting with and studying the behavior of cells, include: dishes for 2D culture, microsystems for studying cells under chemical gradients, electrophoretic microsystems, multi-culture platforms and devices for cell co-culture and dynamic bioreactors or cell culture platforms. This chapter provides an introduction to these different types of biomedical microdevices, illustrating them by means of different cases of study. Main current research trends are also outlined. Other emerging and possibly more complex microsystems for interacting with cells and controlling their behavior and fate, even with the potential of constructing whole tissues and organs from cultured cells, are covered in depth in Chaps. 13– 23.

[1]  I. Weissman,et al.  Endochondral ossification is required for hematopoietic stem cell niche formation , 2008, Nature.

[2]  A. Berg,et al.  BBB ON CHIP: microfluidic platform to mechanically and biochemically modulate blood-brain barrier function , 2013, Biomedical microdevices.

[3]  J. Haga,et al.  Molecular basis of the effects of shear stress on vascular endothelial cells. , 2005, Journal of biomechanics.

[4]  Peter L. Voyvodic,et al.  A multichannel dampened flow system for studies on shear stress-mediated mechanotransduction. , 2012, Lab on a chip.

[5]  Hernán Alarcón Iniesta,et al.  Multi-Channeled Polymeric Microsystem for Studying the Impact of Surface Topography on Cell Adhesion and Motility , 2015 .

[6]  R. Weichselbaum,et al.  Tumour-endothelium interactions in co-culture: coordinated changes of gene expression profiles and phenotypic properties of endothelial cells , 2003, Journal of Cell Science.

[7]  Kenneth M. Yamada,et al.  One-dimensional topography underlies three-dimensional fibrillar cell migration , 2009, The Journal of cell biology.

[8]  J. Voldman.  Electrical forces for microscale cell manipulation. , 2006, Annual review of biomedical engineering.

[9]  Jiandong Ding,et al.  Cell–Material Interactions Revealed Via Material Techniques of Surface Patterning , 2013, Advanced materials.

[10]  Ching-Te Kuo,et al.  Configurable 2D and 3D spheroid tissue cultures on bioengineered surfaces with acquisition of epithelial–mesenchymal transition characteristics , 2012 .

[11]  Antonio Apicella,et al.  A Biomimetic and Biomechanical Approach for Tissue Engineering - Hybrid Nanomaterials and a Piezoelectric Tunable Bending Apparatus for Mechanically Stimulated Osteoblast Cells Growth , 2012, BIODEVICES.

[12]  Gerald Blüml,et al.  Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis for controlling and comparing culture supernatants of mammalian cell culture productions systems , 2004, Cytotechnology.

[13]  R. P. Keatch,et al.  Characterisation of rapid prototyping techniques for studies in cell behaviour , 2010 .

[14]  Rebecca Lownes Urbano,et al.  An inverted dielectrophoretic device for analysis of attached single cell mechanics , 2016 .

[15]  Joel Voldman,et al.  Dielectrophoretic traps for single-particle patterning. , 2005, Biophysical journal.

[16]  R. Kamm,et al.  Microfluidic models of vascular functions. , 2012, Annual review of biomedical engineering.

[17]  N. Abbott,et al.  An improved in vitro blood-brain barrier model: rat brain endothelial cells co-cultured with astrocytes. , 2012, Methods in molecular biology.

[18]  Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic,et al.  Biomimetic platforms for human stem cell research. , 2011, Cell stem cell.