Microenvironment array chip for cell culture environment screening

一般来说，细胞活动(如黏附、伸展、生长、凋亡和分化)强烈依赖于由可溶性因子和支架(如细胞外基质)组成的周围环境的细胞外刺激。在本研究中，我们开发了微环境芯片作为一种新型的灌流培养微室阵列芯片，将细胞培养在由细胞外基质和可溶性因子组成的不同环境的离散微室中。我们提出了利用微环境阵列进行高通量细胞培养条件的筛选。此外，微流控器件上细胞培养表面的修饰也是微流控分析领域的一大问题。然而，离散微腔底部的ECM斑点的微图案化过程是复杂的。我们开发了一种简单、可扩展的制作工艺，用于微腔阵列中的ECM的微图案化，该工艺采用物理掩模的O2等离子体氧化。制备过程包括涂层、氧气等离子体氧化和物理掩蔽，以及随后的封接。所有这些工艺都足够简单，以实现具有ECM的可规模生产微腔阵列。

Generally, cellular events(e. g., adhesion, extension, growth, apoptosis and differentiation) strongly depend on extracellular stimuli from surrounding environment composed of soluble factors and scaffolds(i. e., extracellular matrix(ECM)). In this research, we developed the "microenvironment array chip" as a new-type of the perfusion culture microchamber array chip, where cells are cultured in the discrete microchambers with the different environment composed of combination of ECMs and soluble factors. We present the high-throughput cell culture condition screening by the microenvironment array. In addition, modification of cell culture surfaces on microfluidic devices is a big issue in the field of MicroTAS. However, the micropatterning process of ECM spots on the bottom of the discrete microchambers is complicated. We developed a simple and scalable fabrication process for micropatterning of ECM in the microchamber array by O_2 plasma oxidation with physical masking. The fabrication process includes coating, O_2 plasma oxidation with physical masking, and subsequent sealing. All these process are enough simple to enable scalable production of microchamber array with ECMs.