A microfluidic device for efficient chemical testing using Caenorhabditis elegans.
The nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans has been employed as a popular model organism in many fields of biological research. In this paper, we present a microfluidic device for facilitating chemical testing using C. elegans. For testing chemicals on chip, the device houses single nematodes in microfluidic chambers and precisely adjusts the chamber's chemical environment during experiments. Eight nematodes can be readily loaded into the chambers through separate loading channels in a quick and gentle manner. In addition, a custom-made software with a graphic user interface is also created for quantitative analysis of locomotion parameters (swimming frequency and bend amplitude) of the nematodes in response to chemical stimuli, thus greatly enhancing the efficiency of data collection. We perform proof-of-concept experiments using two chemicals, zinc ion (Zn(2+)) and glucose, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the microfluidic device.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 0C3, Canada.
Pengfei
P
Song
Weize
W
Zhang
Alexandre
A
Sobolevski
Kristine
K
Bernard
Siegfried
S
Hekimi
Xinyu
X
Liu
D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D004867:Equipment Design; D005947:Glucose / Q000494:pharmacology; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D008124:Locomotion; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012984:Software; D013268:Stimulation, Chemical; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D015032:Zinc / Q000494:pharmacology
D005947:Glucose; D015032:Zinc