Microfluidic Platforms for Human Disease Cell Mechanics Studies
Microfluidics is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of chemistry, engineering, and biology; and has experienced rapid growth over the past decades due to advantages associated with miniaturization, integration and faster sample processing and ana
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and Chwee Teck Lim
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Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research Technology Center, Singapore Department of Bioengineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 3 Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Introduction Microfluidics is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of chemistry, engineering, and biology; and has experienced rapid growth over the past decades due to advantages associated with miniaturization, integration and faster sample processing and analysis time (Gervais et al., 2011; Hou et al., 2011; Bhagat et al., 2010). Recently, several microfluidic platforms have been developed for the study of human disease cell biomechanics at the cellular and molecular levels so as to gain better insights into various human diseases such as cancer (Bhagat et al., 2010), pneumonia (Kim et al., 2009b), sepsis (Mach and Di Carlo, 2010) and malaria (Hou et al., 2010). In this section, we will elaborate on recent advances in cellular biomechanics using microfluidic approaches. In particular, we will look at various techniques in probing cellular mechanical properties with some novel applications in cancer and malaria such as theidentification and enrichments of these diseased cells from their normal counter parts. We will also provide insights into the challenges associated with current microfluidic approaches and provide future perspectives for the next-generation platforms.
Investigating human disease cell mechanics Mechanical stimulation of biological species at various spatial and temporal scales has a direct effect on their function and characteristics such as cell fate, genetic expression, migration, differentiation and adhesion among others (Kim et al., 2009a). On the other hand, such quantitative monitoring and measurements can also reveal valuable information about cell stiffness, heterogeneity and even malignancy (e.g. in the case of tumour cells) as well as genetic alterations at subcellular levels (Hou et al., 2011; Kim et al., M. Buehler, R. Ballarini (Eds.), Materiomics: Multiscale Mechanics of Biological Materials and Structures, CISM International Centre for Mechanical Sciences, DOI 10.1007/978-3-7091-1574-9_6, © CISM, Udine 2013
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2009a; Fletcher and Mullins, 2010). Understanding the interplay between cell mechanics and functions (or pathophysiological functions) can also help in the development of robust frameworks towards diagnosis and prognosis of many diseases. There has been growing evidence of the correlation between changes in cell mechanical properties and disease progression (Wirtz et al., 2011). For instance, tumor cells with higher malignancy are known to be more deformable than benign epithelial cells, and this may give rise to their ability to metastasize and eventually extravasate into distant organs during disease progression. In the case of infectious diseases such as malaria, the red blood cells (RBCs) become stiff and cytoadhesive when parasites invade and mature within the RBCs (Kim et al., 2009a; Zare and Kim, 201
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