Microfluidic devices for studying heterotypic cell-cell interactions and tissue specimen cultures under controlled microenvironments
Microfluidic devices allow for precise control of the cellular and noncellular microenvironment at physiologically relevant length- and time-scales. These devices have been shown to mimic the complex in vivo microenvironment better than conventional in vitroassays, and allow real-time monitoring of...
Main Authors: | , , , , |
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Other Authors: | |
Format: | Article |
Language: | en_US |
Published: |
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
2014
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89232 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7232-304X |
Summary: | Microfluidic devices allow for precise control of the cellular and noncellular microenvironment at physiologically relevant length- and time-scales. These devices have been shown to mimic the complex in vivo microenvironment better than conventional in vitroassays, and allow real-time monitoring of homotypic or heterotypic cellularinteractions.Microfluidic culture platforms enable new assay designs for culturing multiple different cell populations and/or tissue specimens under controlled user-defined conditions. Applications include fundamental studies of cell population behaviors, high-throughput drug screening, and tissue engineering. In this review, we summarize recent developments in this field along with studies of heterotypic cell-cell interactions and tissue specimen culture in microfluidic devices from our own laboratory. |
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