title: Endothelialized microfluidics for studying microvascular interactions in hematologic diseases.
abstract: Advances in  microfabrication techniques have enabled the production of inexpensive and  reproducible microfluidic systems for conducting biological and biochemical  experiments at the micro- and nanoscales (1,2). In addition, microfluidics have also been specifically  used to quantitatively analyze hematologic and microvascular processes, because  of their ability to easily control the dynamic fluidic environment and  biological conditions(3-6).  As such, researchers have more recently used microfluidic systems to study  blood cell deformability, blood cell aggregation, microvascular blood flow, and  blood cell-endothelial cell interactions(6-13).However, these microfluidic systems either did  not include cultured endothelial cells or were larger than the sizescale  relevant to microvascular pathologic processes. A microfluidic platform with  cultured endothelial cells that accurately recapitulates the cellular,  physical, and hemodynamic environment of the microcirculation is needed to further  our understanding of the underlying biophysical pathophysiology of hematologic  diseases that involve the microvasculature.    Here, we report a  method to create an "endothelialized" in  vitro model of the microvasculature, using a simple, single mask  microfabrication process in conjunction with standard endothelial cell culture  techniques, to study pathologic biophysical microvascular interactions that  occur in hematologic disease. This "microvasculature-on-a-chip" provides the  researcher with a robust assay that tightly controls biological as well as biophysical  conditions and is operated using a standard syringe pump and brightfield/fluorescence  microscopy. Parameters such as microcirculatory hemodynamic conditions,  endothelial cell type, blood cell type(s) and concentration(s), drug/inhibitory  concentration etc., can all be easily controlled. As such, our microsystem  provides a method to quantitatively investigate disease processes in which  microvascular flow is impaired due to alterations in cell adhesion,  aggregation, and deformability, a capability unavailable with existing assays.
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Georgia, USA. .
authors: David R
authors: DR
authors: Myers
authors: Yumiko
authors: Y
authors: Sakurai
authors: Reginald
authors: R
authors: Tran
authors: Byungwook
authors: B
authors: Ahn
authors: Elaissa Trybus
authors: ET
authors: Hardy
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Mannino
authors: Ashley
authors: A
authors: Kita
authors: Michelle
authors: M
authors: Tsai
authors: Wilbur A
authors: WA
authors: Lam
mesh_terms: D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes / Q000737:chemistry; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000473:pathology*; D006402:Hematologic Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D055806:Microvessels / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes; C013830:baysilon