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“Artificial micro organs”—a microfluidic device for dielectrophoretic assembly of liver sinusoids

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Abstract

In order to study possible toxic side effects of potential drug compounds in vitro a reliable test system is needed. Predicting liver toxicity presents a major challenge of particular importance as liver cells grown in a cell culture suffer from a rapid loss of their liver specific functions. Therefore we are developing a new microfluidic test system for liver toxicity. This test system is based on an organ-like liver 3D co-culture of hepatocytes and endothelial cells. We devised a microfluidic chip featuring cell culture chambers with integrated electrodes for the assembly of liver sinusoids by dielectrophoresis. Fluid channels enable an organ-like perfusion with culture media and test compounds. Different chamber designs were studied and optimized with regard to dielectrophoretic force distribution, hydrodynamic flow profile, and cell trapping rate using numeric simulations. Based on simulation results a microchip was injection-moulded from COP. This chip allowed the assembly of viable hepatocytes and endothelial cells in a sinusoid-like fashion.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for this research was provided by the German Ministry for Education and Research, BMBF, through grant 01GG0729.

The authors thank Johanna Stelzle for proof reading and editing of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NMI Naturwissenschaftliches und Medizinisches Institut an der Universität Tübingen, Markwiesenstrasse 55, 72770, Reutlingen, Germany

    Julia Schütte, Britta Hagmeyer, Felix Holzner, Massimo Kubon, Simon Werner, Christian Freudigmann, Karin Benz & Martin Stelzle

  2. Institut für Biochemie, Medizinische Fakultät Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Jan Böttger & Rolf Gebhardt

  3. Microfluidic ChipShop GmbH, Carl-Zeiss-Promenade 10, Jena, Germany

    Holger Becker

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  1. Julia Schütte
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  2. Britta Hagmeyer
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  11. Martin Stelzle
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Stelzle.

Additional information

Julia Schütte and Britta Hagmeyer contributed equally to this work

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Schütte, J., Hagmeyer, B., Holzner, F. et al. “Artificial micro organs”—a microfluidic device for dielectrophoretic assembly of liver sinusoids. Biomed Microdevices 13, 493–501 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-011-9517-7

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