title: Microfluidic gradient platforms for controlling cellular behavior.
abstract: Concentration gradients play an important role in controlling biological and pathological processes, such as metastasis, embryogenesis, axon guidance, and wound healing. Microfluidic devices fabricated by photo- and soft lithography techniques can manipulate the fluidic flow and diffusion profile to create biomolecular gradients in a temporal and spatial manner. Furthermore, microfluidic devices enable the control of cell-extracellular microenvironment interactions, including cell-cell, cell-matrix, and cell-soluble factor interaction. In this paper, we review the development of microfluidic-based gradient devices and highlight their biological applications.
authors: Department of Bionano Engineering, Hanyang University, Ansan, Korea. bchung@hanyang.ac.kr
authors: Bong Geun
authors: BG
authors: Chung
authors: Jaebum
authors: J
authors: Choo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*