Adapting a microfluidic device for applications in 3D cell culture

Organoids are today commonly used to help modelize organs in a context of disease or toxicological studies. However, the supply of oxygen and nutrients is not efficient enough in the center of these three-dimensional structures, and cells have a tendency to undergo necrosis.  The creation of a vascularization, whether biologic or artificial inside a spheroid remains one of the main challenges in the field, and microfluidic devices are increasingly used towards this aim.  Several methods have been developed for vascularization in order to increase survival, efficiency and reproducibility of three-dimensional cell culture.  One of them, published in 2017 by Nashimoto et al., consists in using a microchip to guide endothelial cells towards the inside of the spheroid. We based our project on this model in order to explore the different ways that a microchip can be used to improve 3D cell culturing.

Members

CORBET Pierre-Emmanuel ; MASSON Mary-Amélie ; MEGALLI Pauline ; SIX Julie ; METAIS Thibaud 

Sponsors and support

Author: Team Microfluidics