Microfluidic System for Controlled Gelation of a Thermally Reversible Hydrogel

The integration of cell culture and characterization onto a miniaturized platform promises to benefit many applications such as tissue engineering, drug screening, and those involving small, precious cell populations. This paper presents the controlled on-chip gelation of a thermally-reversible hydr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on biomedical circuits and systems 2009-08, Vol.3 (4), p.195-201
Main Authors: Flueckiger, J., Cheung, K.C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cell culture
Cells (biology)
Chemicals
Control systems
Drugs
Encapsulation
Extracellular
Microfluidics
Temperature control
Temperature distribution
thermally reversible hydrogel
Tissue engineering
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The integration of cell culture and characterization onto a miniaturized platform promises to benefit many applications such as tissue engineering, drug screening, and those involving small, precious cell populations. This paper presents the controlled on-chip gelation of a thermally-reversible hydrogel. Channel design and flowrate control are crucial in determining hydrogel geometry, while integrated temperature control triggers reversible gel formation. Formation of hydrogel droplets through shearing of immiscible flows is demonstrated with subsequent on-chip gelation. The temperature of phase transition occurs between 32degC-34degC, well within the range for mammalian cell encapsulation and culture.
ISSN:1932-4545
1940-9990
DOI:10.1109/TBCAS.2009.2021657