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Description
Advances in microfabrication and biomaterials have enabled the development of microfluidic friezes to study tissue and organ models. Although these platforms have been developed primarily for modeling human disease, they are also being used to uncover cellular and molecular mechanisms through in vitro studies, particularly in the neurovascular system where reconstruction of physiological mechanisms and three-dimensional (3D) architectures is complex with conventional assays. In this research study, we developed a microfluidic setup to generate 3D cell culture models. Fourier determined the chemical composition of the synthesized GelMA to transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), the surface morphology was observed by field emission electron microscopy (FESEM), and the structural properties were analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The swelling behavior of the hydrogel in the microfluidic chip was imaged, and its porosity was studied for 72 hours by monitoring cell localization using immunofluorescence. GelMA exhibited the desired biomechanical properties, and cell viability was above 80% in both platforms for seven days. In addition, GelMA was a viable platform for 3D cell culture studies and was structurally stable over long periods, even when prepared by photopolymerization in a microfluidic platform. This work demonstrated a viable strategy for conducting co-cultivation experiments and modeling invasion and migration processes. This microfluidic assay can be used in drug delivery and dose optimization studies.
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