A cell electrofusion microfluidic chip using discrete coplanar vertical sidewall microelectrodes.
A novel cell electrofusion microfluidic chip using discrete coplanar vertical sidewall electrodes has been designed, fabricated, and tested. The device contains a serpentine-shaped microchannel with 22 500 pairs of vertical sidewall microelectrodes patterned on two opposing vertical sidewalls of the microchannel. The adjacent microelectrodes on each sidewall are separated by coplanar SiO(2) -Polysilicon-SiO(2) /silicon. This design of coplanar discrete vertical sidewall electrodes eliminates the "dead area" present in previous designs using continuous three-dimensional (3D) protruding sidewall electrodes, and generates uniform electric field along the height of the microchannel, leading to a lower voltage required for cell fusion compared to designs using 2D thin-film electrodes. This device is tested to fuse NIH3T3 cells under a low voltage (∼9 V). Almost 100% cells are aligned to the edge of the discrete microelectrodes, and cell-cell pairing efficiency reaches 70%. The electrofusion efficiency is above 40% of the total cells loaded into the device, which is much higher than traditional fusion methods and existing microfluidic devices using continuous 3D protruding sidewall microelectrodes.
Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory for Optoelectronic Technology and Systems, Ministry of Education Chongqing University, Chongqing, P. R. China.
Ning
N
Hu
Jun
J
Yang
Shizhi
S
Qian
Xiaolin
X
Zhang
Sang W
SW
Joo
Xiaolin
X
Zheng
D000818:Animals; D003584:Cytological Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D051379:Mice; D008839:Microelectrodes; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D000097573:Red Fluorescent Protein
D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D000097573:Red Fluorescent Protein