title: Strategy for signaling molecule detection by using an integrated microfluidic device coupled with mass spectrometry to study cell-to-cell communication.
abstract: Cell-to-cell communication is a very important physiological behavior in life entity, and most of human behaviors are related to it. Although cell-to-cell communications are attracting much attention and financial support, rare methods have been successfully developed for in vitro cell-to-cell communication study. In this work, we developed a novel method for cell-to-cell communication study on an integrated microdevice, and signaling molecule and metabolites were online-detected by an electrospray ionization-quadrupole-time-of-flight-mass spectrometer (ESI-Q-TOF-MS) after on-chip solid-phase extraction. Moreover, we presented a "Surface Tension Plug" on a microchip to control cell-to-cell communication. The microdevice consists of three functional sections: cell coculture channel, targets pretreatment, and targets detection sections. To verify the feasibility of cell-to-cell communications on the integrated microdevice, we studied the communication between the 293 and the L-02 cells. Epinephrine and glucose were successfully detected using an ESI-Q-TOF-MS with short analysis time (<10 min). The results demonstrated that the developed microfluidic device is a potentially useful tool for high throughput cell-to-cell communication study.
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Microanalytical Methods and Instrumentation, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Sifeng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Haifang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jin-Ming
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D002450:Cell Communication; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction / Q000295:instrumentation; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000295:instrumentation; D013500:Surface Tension