A simple microfluidic chip technology for assaying electrotaxis of cancer cells / 军事医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To develop a simple microfluidic chip technology for analyzing the electrotaxis of cancer cells . Methods The basic structure of the proposed microfluidic electrotaxis chip included a straight microchannel and liquid storage pools located on both sides of the microchannel .Two platinum electrodes were inserted into the liquid pools to create a controllable direct current ( DC ) field in the microchannel .The distribution and strength of the DC field in the microchannel was analyzed by the finite element analysis software COMSOL multiphysics and experiment tests .Finally, the electrotactic behavior of the rhabdomyosarcoma RD cells in the DC field of different strength was characterized using the accumulated distance, average velocity, x forward migration index ( xFMI) and y forward migration index ( yFMI) as quantitative parameters.Results The results of element analysis and experiments showed that the structure of the designed microfluidic electrotaxis chip was able to guarantee a uniform and strength-controllable DC field in the microchannel .The experiment of cell electrotaxis showed that the RD cells migrated toward the anode of the DC field .Meanwhile , the values of xFMI and accumulated distance for RD cells increased with the enlargement of the DC field , with the strength ranging from 188 to 1320 V/m.Conclusion The microfluidic chip technology developed in this paper for assaying the electrotaxis of cancer cells is simple and easily implementable , and it can be used for studies of the electrotactic behavior and underlying mechanisms of various cancer cells and normal cells in the future .