title: Multicompartmented microfluidic device for characterization of dose-dependent cadmium cytotoxicity in BALB/3T3 fibroblast cells.
abstract: This paper describes the development of a miniaturized multicompartmented microfluidic device for high-throughput cell cytotoxicity assays and its applicability to the investigation of cadmium-induced cytotoxicity. A steady gradient of cadmium was generated inside the compartments to study the effects of cadmium ion on BALB/3T3 fibroblast cells in a dose-dependent fashion. The device allowed the performance of multiplexed assays to probe the dosage effect of cadmium, morphological alterations of live cells, regulation of proliferation and viability of cells, determination of reactive oxygen species, mechanisms of cell death, i.e. apoptosis and/or necrosis, and immunocytochemical staining of cells in parallel and/or serially, or on a single population simultaneously. The outcomes of all the microfluidic assays were compared to conventional plates-based cytotoxicity assays. The results indicated that the cells cultured in this device were morphologically healthy with greater than 90% viability. They further suggested that the basic mode of cell death behind cadmium-induced cytotoxicity was apoptosis, which was regulated by intracellular oxidative stress via cytoskeleton disorganization and nuclear condensation. Such microenvironments resemble the in vivo physiological conditions very closely and thus offer a unique platform for more accurate observations of cytotoxicity assays and more precise estimation of the IC(50) value in comparison to conventional analytical assays.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Kongju National University, Kongju 314-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Sanjeev Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Mahto
authors.forename: Tae Hyun
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Hyunjong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Seog Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Rhee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D041702:BALB 3T3 Cells; D002104:Cadmium / Q000633:toxicity*; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D017022:Flow Injection Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007928:Lethal Dose 50; D051379:Mice; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018675:Toxicity Tests / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D002104:Cadmium