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With our well-established microfluidic chip platform, the experienced scientists here at Creative Biolabs are dedicated to helping you with novel microfluidic chip development services. Our services are built to meet the customer’s project and assay-specific requirements for different functions, such as cell biomechanics analysis.

Introduction of Cell Biomechanics

Cell biomechanics is a sub-field of biophysics that focuses on the behavior and mechanical properties of living cells. It encompasses aspects of biomechanics, cell biophysics, soft matter physics and rheology, cell biology, and mechanobiology. In general, most cells in vivo are constantly exposed, passively or actively. In this case, it is essential to reproduce these physiological constraints in vitro to induce the right phenotype to cells, finalize their maturation and maintain homeostasis. To better understand the cell biomechanics from the molecular level to organ scale, we describe the novel microfluidic devices for cell biomechanics analysis.

Microfluidic Chips for Cell Biomechanics Analysis

With the considerable progress in the fields of computers, high-speed imaging, optics, and microfabrication techniques, it is possible to combine microfluidic devices with high-speed video microscopy for cellular flow measurement. In recent decades, there are a series of successful applications for single-cell biomechanics analysis. The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic devices enable cellular flow measurement with high sensitivity. For example, small changes of red blood cell deformability can be detected using PDMS hyperbolic-shaped contraction microchannels, while traditional biocompatibility tests did not show any influence. In addition, some studies have shown that the confocal micro-PTV system would be a valuable tool to characterize the mechanical behavior of single cells flowing in low and moderate concentrations of blood cells. The combination of confocal system with hyperbolic shaped constrictions may provide a promising tool to perform sensitive cell deformability measurements, which has been served as a clinical tool for early detection and diagnosis of blood diseases. There is no doubt that the microfluidic device will continue to improve for more sensitive and reliable results of cell biomechanics analysis.

Fig. 1 Mechanical stimuli applied to cells.¹

Advantages of Microfluidic Devices

• Precise control
• Transparency for direct optical access
• Reduced space and labor
• Lower cost
• Easy manipulation of a small volume of blood samples

Creative Biolabs offers a suite of custom microfluidic chip development services to address the ever-changing research of cell biomechanics analysis. If you are interested in our services, please do not hesitate to contact us for more detailed information.

Reference

1. Wang, Gust, et al. " Kidney-on-a-Chip: Mechanical Stimulation and Sensor Integration." Sensors 22.18 (2022): 6889.

For Research Use Only. Not For Clinical Use.