Research Information System
17th Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Conference(NANOTR-17) , İzmir, Turkey, 27 - 29 August 2023, pp.122, (Summary Text)
Quality and reliability of the technologies developed as part of tissue engineering applications for the medical and pharmaceutical industries are tested by employing bulk amount of cells. Two-dimensional (2D) cell culture systems are not adequate in resembling the response of the cells to various media and drugs as mass transport requires long diffusion distances and is limited to two directions. Therapeutic agents for cancer treatment have been applied successfully in three-dimensional (3D) culture models by using nanodrug delivery systems[1]. Miniaturized systems, such as microfluidic devices, can mechanically constrain cells in microchannels[2], are easier to monitor on a microscope, offer better control over transport phenomena[3], and can better imitate in- vivo conditions[4]. The scope of this study is to design a simple continuous microfluidic platform for 3D cell culture. We designed a two-step microfluidic system, where the first part includes droplet formation and encapsulation of cells and the second includes stabilization of the microcapsules. Ensuring the same conditions for each microcapsule is critical and depends on the uniformity of their size. To reach this goal in the first part, we used a droplet-based two-phase microfluidic device with an x-junction of 100-micron. The number of cells captured in a droplet may vary depending on the flow rate of each phase during encapsulation rendering it as a stochastic process. We optimized the flow conditions for obtaining uniform droplets and interdroplet distances with the desired sizes towards cell encapsulation. We investigated the effects of mass transfer based on the solubility between the two phases on droplet size near the metabolic temperature 37°C. In the second part, the cell encapsulating droplets are transferred to microwells of 1000-micron depth and 500-micron diameter. We observed that droplets remained stable and proved that this design can be further improved and used for 3D culture of cells. By providing systematic information for cell encapsulation and developing the microwell design, we aim to present a 3D cell culture platform that can be used for monitoring cell response to nanodrug delivery systems.