Microfluidic system for applying shear flow to endothelial cells on culture insert with collagen vitrigel membrane

Abstract

This study proposes a microfluidic system comprising a microfluidic channel and a cylindrical hole for holding a commercially available culture insert with a collagen vitrigel membrane. Because the bottom surface of the culture insert and top surface of the channel are in the same plane, the flow of the culture medium in the channel can be directly applied to cells on the bottom surface. Additionally, the culture insert is easily removable from the microfluidic system for various biological analyses in a standard protocol, making this system accessible to users who are not experts in engineering. To demonstrate the potential applications of the system, we confirmed that by applying the flow of the culture medium, the endothelial cells cultured on the bottom surface of the insert and myotubes cultured in the insert aligned depending on the flow direction. We believe that the microfluidic system will be a useful tool for morphological analyses of cells based on fluidic shear stress.