title: Polar stimulation and constrained cell migration in microfluidic channels.
abstract: Asymmetrical delivery of stimuli to moving cells for perturbing spatially-heterogeneous intracellular signaling is an experimental challenge not adequately met by existing technologies. Here, we report a robust microfluidic platform allowing localized treatment of the front and/or back of moving cells which crawl through narrow channels that they completely occlude. The enabling technical element for this study is a novel design for precise, passive balancing of flow inside the microfluidic device by contacting two fluid streams before splitting them again. The microchannels constrain cell morphology and induce qualitative and quantitative changes in neutrophil chemotaxis that mimic cells crawling through tissues.
authors.affiliation: BioMEMS Resource Center, Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Shriners Hospital for Children, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. dirimia@hms.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Irimia
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Charras
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Agrawal
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mitchison
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toner
mesh_terms: D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002465:Cell Movement; D002470:Cell Survival; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*